82 PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 



As a check, repeat the same experiment, but boil the pan- 

 creas extract before using it: the saccharifying action does 

 not take place. 



Instead of the aqueous pancreas extract we may use a glycerin 

 extract of the pancreas (about ten drops to 10 cc. of starch paste), or 

 the fresh pancreas when that is available. Grind a piece of the 

 pancreas (from the ox or dog) with water to a thin paste, filter 

 through muslin, and mix about equal volumes of starch paste and 

 the gland extract. 



III. DETECTION OF THE LIPOLYTIC FERMENT, LIPASE. 



This succeeds only with the fresh pancreas. Grind the 

 finely minced pancreas to a thin paste, divide it into two 

 equal parts, boil one part (A) to destroy the ferment, but not 

 the other (B). Then shake a few grams of butter-fat with 

 luke-warm water, add a few drops of rosolic acid solution 

 and then tenth-normal caustic soda solution till the mixture 

 is distinctly red. Now mix equal parts of the fat emulsion 

 with the pancreas-paste, one part with (A), the other with 

 (B), and add a drop or two of chloroform. If these mixtures 

 are not distinctly red, then add cautiously, drop by drop, 

 dilute sodium carbonate solution. Digest the mixture twelve 

 to twenty-four hours at 40. The solution marked (A) does 

 not change its color; (B) becomes yellow in consequence of 

 the butyric acid set free by the hydrolysis of the butyrin. 



In like manner we can test cystic fluids, which are suspected to 

 come from the pancreas, for the saccharifying and lipolytic ferments. 

 To detect the presence of trypsin digest a portion of the fluid, made 

 alkaline, if necessary, for twenty-four hours at 40. Since albumin is 

 a constant constituent of the cystic fluids, they must now contain 

 peptone and tryptophan in case trypsin is present. Coagulate the 

 albumin (adding water if necessary) by heating the solution faintly 

 acidified with acetic acid, filter, and divide the filtrate into two parts. 

 One part is used for the biuret reaction with caustic soda and copper 

 sulphate solutions, the other for the tryptophan reaction. To detect 

 very small quantities of the digestion products of albumin we may 



