ACTION OF THE SMALL INTESTINE. 611 



the second, the food was as completely chymified as if the process had 

 taken place in the stomach. The same experiments were repeated upon 

 animals whose pylorus had been secured by ligature, and with similar 

 results. One of them lived for a month after the ligature, nourished 

 for that period by food introduced into the duodenum. These facts ' 

 sufficiently show, that a solvent action is exerted in the small intestine. 



The biliary and pancreatic juices are usually esteemed great agents 

 in chylification. It has been already remarked, that the chyliferous ves- 

 sels do not begin to appear above the part at which these juices are 

 poured into the duodenum ; that in the rest of the small intestine they 

 are less and less numerous as we recede from the duodenum ; and that 

 the chyme does not exhibit any marked change in its properties, until 

 after its admixture with those fluids. Direct experiments have been 

 made for the purpose of testing the use of the bile in digestion. Sir 

 Benjamin Brodie tied the ductus communis choledochus in young cats, 

 so as to prevent both hepatic and cystic bile from reaching the intes- 

 tine. He found, that chylification was interrupted, and there were 

 neither traces of chyle in the intestines nor in the chyliferous vessels. 

 The former contained only chyme, similar to that of the stomach, which 

 became solid at the termination of the ileum ; and the latter, a trans- 

 parent fluid, which appeared to be a mixture of lymph, and of the more 

 liquid portion of the chyme. Mr. Mayo, 1 likewise, found, that when 

 the ductus communis choledochus was tied in the cat or dog, and the 

 animals were killed at. various intervals after eating, there was no trace 

 whatever of chyle in the lacteals. M. Magendie, 2 however, repeated 

 these experiments on adult animals, and with dissimilar results. The 

 greater part died of the consequences of opening the abdomen, and 

 of the operation required for tying the duct. But in two cases, in 

 which they survived some days, he discovered that digestion had per- 

 sisted ; white chyle had been formed, and stercoraceous matter pro- 

 duced. This last had not the usual colour ; but this, as he remarks, 

 is not surprising, as it contained no bile. The experiment was repeated 

 by MM. Leuret and Lassaigne, 3 and with results similar to those ob- 

 tained by M. Magendie. In the duodenum and jejunum, a whitish chyme 

 adhered to the parietes of the organ ; and in the thoracic duct there 

 was a fluid of a rosy-yellow colour, which afforded, on analysis, the 

 same constituents as chyle; although the subjects of the operation had 

 been kept, for some time, without food. 



The experiments of Messrs. Tiedemann and Gmelin 4 on this subject 

 were marked by the usual care and accuracy of those observers. They 

 found, that the animals were attacked with vomiting, soon after the 

 operation, and afterwards with thirst and aversion for food; on the 

 second or third day, the conjunctiva became yellow, the evacuations 

 chalky, and very fetid, and the urine yellow. Some of the animals 

 died; others were killed : of the latter, some had previously recovered 

 from the jaundice, owing to a singular recuperative phenomenon, noticed 



1 Lond. Med. and Physical Journal, Oct., 1826 ; and Outlines of Physiology, 4th edit, p. 125, 

 London, 1837. 2 Op. citat.,ii. 117. 



3 Recherches sur la Digestion, p. 147, Paris, 1825. 



4 Recherches Experimentales, &c., sur la Digestion, ii. 53, Paris, 182^. 



