104 THE EXPERIMENTS OF KLEMENSIEWICZ AND HEIDENHAIN. [BOOK II. 



The Experiments of Klemensiewicz and Heidenhain on the Pyloric 



Secretion. 



Prompted by the very wonderful experimental procedure by 

 which Thiry had thrown light upon the intestinal secretion, Klemen- 

 siewicz conceived the idea of exposing the stomach of a living animal 

 and making two parallel incisions right through the pyloric part of 

 the organ so as to obtain a cylinder lined internally by pyloric 

 mucous membrane and retaining its essential vascular and nervous 

 connexions. The cylinder had one of its ends closed up by sutures 

 and thus a tube was made which was twisted round; the edges of 

 the open mouth of the tube were then stitched to the edges of the 

 incision which had been made in the abdominal wall. Thus was 

 obtained a tube whose walls were constituted by pyloric mucous 

 membrane and which opened on the external surface of the body. The 

 two portions of the stomach from which the above-mentioned inter- 

 mediate portion had been removed were now brought into contact and 

 united by sutures, so as to re-establish the continuity of the organ 1 . 

 All the dogs experimented upon by Klemensiewicz ultimately suc- 

 cumbed to the formidable operation just described, yet the experi- 

 menter was able to ascertain that the pyloric tube, which he had 

 established, secreted an alkaline, viscous, liquid (succus pyloricus) 

 which by itself did not digest proteids, but which did so after acidula- 

 tion with hydrochloric acid. 



Interesting, and especially suggestive, as were the experiments of 

 Klemensiewicz, they could not be held absolutely to disprove the 

 imbibition-theory of the pyloric pepsin, for, as the animals survived 

 but for a short time, the pyloric juice might be supposed to contain 

 some pepsin which had been elaborated, before the operation, in 

 the peptic glands of the fundus, and subsequently imbibed by the 

 pylorus. 



Heidenhain 2 , however, repeated Klemensiewicz's procedure. The 

 adoption of Lister's antiseptic method of wound treatment enabled 

 this skilled experimenter to succeed, in three operations out of six, in 

 establishing a permanent independent pyloric tube which enabled the 

 secretion to be observed, in one case, for a period of five months. 



From these observations it, results that after food has entered the 

 stomach, there is slowly set up a secretion of pyloric juice, which is 

 at its height about the fifth hour. The secretion, which is scanty, 

 always has an alkaline reaction, is viscid and is rich in pepsin and in 



1 Klemensiewicz (Graz), 'Ueber den Succus Pyloricus.' Sitzungsber. d. k. Acad. d. 

 Wiss. Wien, Vol. LXXI. 1875. March 18. 



2 Heidenhain, 'Ueber die Pepsinbildung in den Pylorusdriisen.' Pfliiger's Archiv, 

 Vol. xvni. (1878), p. 169. A description of the method of carrying out the operation 

 illustrated with a diagram shewing the direction of the various incisions of the stomach 

 is given by Heidenhain in his article entitled 'Physiologic der Absonderungsvorgange. 

 2 Abschn : Der Magen,' in Hermann's Handbuch, Vol. v. Pt. i. p. 110. 



