RESORPTION OF SOAPS 357 



longer demonstrable by means of osmic acid, 20 the interest 

 in these and similar observations has perceptibly 

 diminished. 



According to the studies of Noll and those of many of 

 the older observers, a portion of the fat taken up by the 

 intestinal epithelium leaves the latter immediately ; another 

 portion first runs together into larger droplets, these then 

 gradually passing out into the chyle vessels. 21 Step by step 

 the process first shows the fat granules in the lymph clefts 

 of the villus ; passing thence with the lymph which transudes 

 from the capillaries into the central chyle vessel, and finally 

 along the mesenteric lymph passages into the thoracic duct, 

 the contraction of the musculature of the villi acting as the 

 propelling force. When fat resorption is in active process 

 the exposed intestine shows the chyle passages filled with 

 milky fluid. 



Resorption of Soaps. As to the further question in what 

 form the fat is most readily resorbed, it was formerly the 

 tendency to assume that soap solutions introduced into an 

 intestinal loop are particularly suited for resorption. How- 

 ever, experiments made in the Zuntz Institute 22 have shown 

 that in dogs with Thiry-Vella fistulas of the upper portions 

 of the intestine where a prompt resorption of fat emulsions 

 takes place, soap solutions are not resorbed even after bile 

 and pancreatic juice are added. (On the other hand, in 

 case of fistulas of the lower parts of the bowel soaps were 

 readily absorbed.) The author, in collaboration with 

 J. Schiitz 23 and with Bleibtreu, 24 has also noted a poor 

 resorption of soap solutions from isolated intestinal loops. 



20 G. Rossi, Arch, di Fisiol., 4, 429, 1909. 



21 A. Noll (Physiol. Instit. Jena), Arch. f. Anat. u. Physiol., 1907, 349; 

 Physiologentag Wiirzburg, 1909 ; Centralbl. f . Physiol., 23, 290, 1909 ; Pfliiger's 

 Arch., 136, 208, 1910; cf. also Literature: E. H. Starling, Handb. d. Biochem.. 

 3", 226-228, 1909. 



22 W. Croner (Lab. of N. Zuntz, Berlin), Biochem. Zeitschr., 23, 97, 1909. 



23 0. v. Fiirth and J. Schiitz, Hofmeister's Beitr., 10, 462, 1907. 



24 M. Bleibtreu, Deutsch. med. Wochenschr., 1906, 1233. 



