INTESTINAL JUICE AND DIGESTION IN INTESTINE. 183 



COMPOSITION OF INTESTINAL JUICE FROM THE HORSE. 



Water 981.0 



Albuminous matter 4.5 



Sodium chloride 

 Potassium chloride i 



Sodium phosphate 

 Sodium carbonate 



1000.0 



Thiry separated a portion of the small intestine from the remainder 

 by two transverse sections, leaving the mesentery and vessels of the 

 isolated portion uninjured, and then united by sutures the divided ends 

 of the remaining portions, so as to re-establish the continuity of the intes- 

 tine, but with a portion of it, 10 or 15 centimetres long, left out. Of 

 this isolated portion, still nourished by its vessels, he closed one end 

 by sutures, so as to make of it a blind extremity, while the other he 

 fastened to the edges of the external wound in such a way as to make 

 of it a permanent fistula. When all the parts had healed, and natural 

 digestion was re-established, he collected the fluid discharged from the 

 open end of the isolated portion of intestine. This operation has been 

 repeated by other observers. The objection to it is that the isolated por- 

 tion of intestine, after being for some weeks precluded from taking part 

 in the process of digestion, becomes partially atrophied, and cannot 

 be relied on as furnishing a secretion similar to the normal intestinal 

 juice. The results obtained vary, some of them indicating that the 

 secretion converts starch into sugar and has a dissolving action on 

 coagulated albuminous matters, others that these properties are some- 

 times absent or but slightly developed. 



On the whole, the method adopted by Frerichs and Colin, with its 

 various modifications, seems to be the best and has furnished the most 

 uniform results. Colin found that the fluid obtained in this way has the 

 power of slowly transforming hydrated starch into sugar, and of emul- 

 sioning fatty matters with considerable energy. One part of olive oil, 

 treated with five or six parts of intestinal juice, was transformed into a 

 homogeneous mixture of a white color; and oil injected into the isolated 

 portion of intestine, in the living animal, was found, after an hour, re- 

 duced to the condition of whitish homogeneous flakes. 



Bernard obtained from a healthy dog which had been without food 

 for twelve days, by an opening in the intestine 60 centimetres below the 

 pylorus, a transparent, amber colored, alkaline fluid, which coagulated 

 by heat, emulsioned oily matters distinctly though not strongly, and 

 effected the transformation of hydrated starch. A small quantity of 

 melted lard having been injected into the lower part of the intestine 

 and a ligature placed above, at the end of an hour and a half the lower 

 part of the intestine was found turgid, with emulsioned fat in its cavity, 

 and its chyliferous vessels filled with opaque chyle. 



It appears accordingly that the intestinal juice, so far as ascertained 



