THE PANCREATIC SECRETION. 313 



acted upon by the pancreatic secretion, or by portions of 

 pancreas put in starch paste, in the same manner that it 

 is by saliva and portions of the salivary glands. And 

 although, as before stated (p. 262), many substances be- 

 sides those glands can excite the transformation of starch 

 into dextrin and grape-sugar, yet it appears probable 

 that the pancreatic fluid, exercising this power of trans- 

 formation, is largely subservient to the purpose of digesting 

 starch. MM. Bouchardat and Sandras have shown that 

 the raw starch-granules which have passed unchanged 

 through the crops and gizzards of granivorous birds, or 

 through the stomachs of herbivorous Mammalia, are, in 

 the small intestine, disorganized, eroded, and finally dis- 

 solved, as they are when exposed, in experiment, to the 

 action of the pancreatic fluid. The bile cannot effect such 

 a change in starch ; and it is most probable that the pan- 

 creatic secretion is the principal agent in the transforma- 

 tion, though it is by no means clear that the office may 

 not be shared by the secretion of the intestinal mucous 

 membrane, which also seems to possess the power of con- 

 verting starch Into sugar. 



2. The existence of a pancreas in Carnivora, which have 

 little or no starch in their food, and the results of various 

 observations and experiments, leave very Itttle doubt that 

 the pancreatic secretion also assists largely in the digestion 

 of fatty matters, by transforming them into a kind of 

 emulsion, and thus rendering them capable of absorption 

 by the lacteals. Several cases have been recorded in which 

 the pancreatic duct being obstructed, so that the secretion 

 could not be discharged, fatty or oily matter was abun- 

 dantly discharged from the intestines. In nearly all these 

 cases, indeed, the liver was coincidently diseased, and the 

 change or absence of the bile might appear to contribute 

 to the result ; yet the frequency of extensive disease of 

 the liver, unaccompanied by fatty discharges from the 

 intestines, favours the view that, in these cases, it is to the 

 absence of the pancreatic fluid from the intestines that the 



