ITS FUNCTIONS. 



by Bidder and Schmidt; and it is now indubitably established 

 that the pancreatic juice possesses this sugar-forming power in a 

 far higher degree than the saliva. 



Bernard claims for the pancreatic juice another and apparently 

 a more important function; he believes that he has found that it 

 is solely by the action of the pancreatic juice that the fat is reduced 

 to a condition in which it can be resorbed and digested ; that is to 

 say, that it is decomposed into glycerine and a fatty acid. This 

 view, although it appears to be supported by convincing proofs, 

 is, however, directly opposed by the numerous and ingeniously 

 devised independent experiments of Frerichs and of Bidder arid 

 Schmidt. 



Bernard's experiments, which, strangely enough, were con- 

 firmed by the French Academy,* have reference to the following 

 points. Both the excretory ducts of the pancreas were tied in 

 dogs, and the animals were afterwards fed upon food abounding 

 in fat ; no milky chyle was found in the lacteals ; the fat remained 

 unchanged, and was found unaltered even in the large intestine. 

 The following experiment appears even more decisive in favour of 

 Bernard's opinion. If oil be injected into the stomach of a rabbit, 

 which is afterwards allowed to partake of its ordinary food ; and if it 

 be killed three or four hours after the injection of the oil, Bernard 

 maintains that none of the lacteals will be filled with milky chyle, 

 except those which originate from the intestine below the opening 

 of Wirsung's duct. This experiment would seem at the same time 

 to show that the bile exerts no influence on the digestion of the fat, 

 since in rabbits Wirsung's duct opens somewhat lower in the 

 duodenum than the bile-duct. Finally, the pancreatic fluid, when 

 shaken with fat, was said readily to form an emulsion in consequence 

 of its viscidity, and to retain the fat in this finely comminuted state 

 far longer than any other animal fluid ; the neutral fats, however, 

 in a short time, being decomposed into glycerine and the cor- 

 responding fatty acids. 



It is singular that neither Frerichs nor Schmidt and Bidder, 

 although their observations were made with the greatest care, have 

 been able to confirm any one of these experiments, which Bernard 

 maintains that he has often repeated. These experimenters have 

 followed all Bernard's directions; after tying the pancreatic duct 

 in cats, they have kept the animals without food for from twelve 

 to twenty-four hours (so that it might be fairly presumed that 

 there was no longer any pancreatic juice in the intestine), and 

 * Compt. rend. T. 28, p. 960. 



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