450 CHARACTERS OF CONTENTS OF COLON, [BOOK II. 



The morpho- When fed upon a diet composed of bread, meat, 



logical con- Kemmerich's ' peptone,' sugar, milk, beef- tea and eggs, 

 the Intestinal ^ ne i n testinal contents exhibited (under the microscope) 

 contents at many bile-stained, striped, muscular fibres : masses of 

 the entrance " detritus " : pigment granules : amorphous flakes of 

 into the colon, albumin, mucin and bile acids : vegetable fibres : and 

 numerous bacteria. When the patient was fed upon a diet composed 

 mainly of pease-porridge and containing therefore a large quantity of 

 starch, on microscopic examination, the granules of the latter body 

 preponderated ; iodine stained them, however, of a red colour. 



The reaction of the intestinal contents, as they 

 characters of leave the ileum to enter the caecum, is acid, the acidity 

 the intestinal being on an average equal to that of a solution of 

 contents when acetic acid containing 1 part in 1000, and depending 

 passing into upon the presence of organic acids, amongst which 

 preponderates the inactive lactic acid of fermentation. 

 The fluid part of the intestinal contents, filtered from solid matters, 

 contains the following constituents : Albumin coagulable by heat, 

 mucin, peptones, (and albumoses ?), the products of transformation of 

 starch, inactive lactic acid of fermentation, as well as the optically 

 active paralactic acid, small quantities of volatile fatty acids (prin- 

 cipally acetic acid), bile acids and bilirubin (not hydrobilirubin /). 

 When exposed to the air, the intestinal contents assume a green 

 colour in consequence of the conversion of bilirubin into biliverdin. 

 When the activity of the filtrate is sensibly greater than corresponds 

 to 1 per 1000 of acetic acid say 1/5 to 2'0 per 1000 the addition 

 of acetic acid occasions no precipitate : at most a faint turbidity. If 

 the quantity of acid be small, acetic acid throws down mucin in a 

 flocculent condition. In consequence of its containing free acid, the 

 albumin in the filtrate of the intestinal contents coagulates on mere 

 boiling. When, however, the acidity is great, the filtrate must be 

 partly neutralised before the albumin can be thrown down on boiling. 



Quantities Macfadyen, Nencki and Sieber found that when 



of available their patient was fed upon a mixed diet and the 

 pr^cipiesTin intestinal contents were thin, they contained about 5 per 

 intestinal con- cent, of total solids ; when the contents were more con- 

 tents passing centrated they contained, on an average, 10 per cent, of 

 into colon. tota j so lid s . Some idea of the total quantity of the 

 contents passing from the ileum in 24 hours may be formed by the 

 results of two observations. The total quantity being 550 grms., the 

 residue weighed 4'9 per cent.; the total solids leaving the ileum 

 being therefore 26'95 grms. On another occasion, 232 grms. were 

 collected, containing 11.23 per cent, of residue, the total solid matters 

 amounting, therefore, to 26*05 grms. 



When we now inquire in what proportions the various groups of 

 alimentary constituents are present in the matters which pass into 

 the colon, we find that coagulable albumin amounts to less than 



