362 DIGESTION AND RESORPTION OF FATS 



tirpation is a very serious interference which results in an 

 inexpressible wasting of the body. It might be asked very 

 properly whether, when "everything is upset " in metabo- 

 lism in sequence, it really is a matter of much wonder 

 that the fat digestion should also become disordered. 

 Minkowski noted in dogs with only a remnant of pancreatic 

 tissue transplanted under the skin of the abdomen, the 

 secretion of which escaped externally, that the resorption 

 of fat was not materially reduced provided the dog could 

 lick up the secretion ; when the secretion, however, was with- 

 held, interference with resorption at once manifested itself. 36 

 Off-hand there does not seem to be any insistent reason for 

 ascribing to the internal secretion of the pancreas, besides 

 its dominant part in the metabolism of sugar, a second 

 analogous cardinal function in relation to the metabolism of 

 fats. Disturbances of the latter process, after complete 

 pancreatic extirpation, can be fully explained in the first 

 place on the basis of the failure of its external secretion, and 

 in the second place by the general disturbance of the economy 

 which severe pancreatic diabetes brings with it. 



There will probably be noted a contradiction in the 

 author's first statement that the combined influence of the 

 pancreas and the bile is essential to the proper procedure 

 of fat digestion and the subsequent point to the effect that 

 ligation of the pancreatic ducts need not necessarily give 

 rise to any very important disturbance of fat resorption. 

 This is, however, probably only a superficial contradiction. 

 If under normal conditions the bile and the pancreas co- 

 operate in connection with the resorption of fat (which is 

 undoubtedly the case from the decisive observations of 

 Claude Bernard and Dastre upon the chyle), this does not 

 preclude the possibility of the economy taking advantage of 

 vicarious means of compensating in some measure for the 

 loss of pancreatic secretion. We know, for instance, that 



88 G. Burkhardt ( Minkowski' s Clinic, Greifswald), Arch. d. exper. Pathol., 

 58, 252, 1908; cf. also the observations of Abelmann and others. 



