CHAPTER III. 



THE PANCREAS IN ITS RELATION TO THE PAN- 

 CREATIC JUICE. PANCREATIC DIGESTION. 



SECT. 1. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING SOME POINTS 

 IN THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE PANCREAS. 



THE Pancreas is a gland which secretes an alkaline juice and 

 which empties itself into the upper portion of the small intestine. 



In addition to this more obvious function, the pancreas plays a 

 remarkable, and as yet incompletely understood, part in relation to 

 the transformations of sugar in the animal economy. The facts 

 which bear on this function will be discussed in a subsequent part of 

 this work. 



The Pancreas exists in all air-breathing vertebrates in mam- 

 mals, birds, reptiles and in many, though by no means in all, fishes. 



Although it has been usual to say that the pancreas does not 

 exist in invertebrates, it would appear from the recent researches of 

 Krukenberg and others that a glandular organ which is the physio- 

 logical analogue of the pancreas is widely distributed throughout 

 invertebrates. 



The Pancreas is a long narrow gland of a reddish cream colour, 

 which during life varies in tint, being pale when inactive, but turgid 

 and roseate in hue whilst secretion is proceeding. In man the organ 

 lies 'across the posterior wall of the abdomen, behind the stomach 

 and opposite the first lumbar vertebra. Its larger end, the head, 

 turned to the right, is embraced by the curvature of the duodenum, 

 whilst its left or narrow extremity, the tail, reaches to a somewhat 

 higher level and is in contact with the spleen.' 



The normal arrangement is that there exist two pancreatic ducts. 

 One very much larger than the other, the pancreatic duct, properlj 



