vi] Sylvius and his Pupils. 163 



In 1682, five years before his call to Heidelberg, he pub- 

 lished a little work, Experimenta nova circa pancreas, embody- 

 ing the results of work which he had begun ten years before. 



In this he made known that he had succeeded several times 

 in removing from a dog nearly the whole of the pancreas, and 

 in keeping the animal alive afterwards for a considerable time. 

 He removed nearly, but not quite, the whole of the gland ; the 

 extreme end lay so deep in the body that it could not be 

 reached by the knife. 



He insisted that the animal when it recovered from the 

 effects of the operation, as in most cases it did, in no way 

 suffered in health. It ate, drank, ran about as usual, was 

 well nourished, and all its digestive functions were carried on 

 normally. Obviously says Brunner, Sylvius and De Graaf were 

 wholly wrong in attributing the importance which they did to 

 the digestive powers of the pancreatic juice. The animals on 

 which I operated, secreted no pancreatic juice into the intes- 

 tine, the duct and nearly the whole gland having been done 

 away with ; yet they digested as usual. 



Upon entering into the professorial chair at Heidelberg, in 

 1687, Brunner published a Dissertatio inauguralis de glandulis 

 duodeni, in which he described the glands since known by his 

 name. He states that these glands yield a fluid like pancreatic 

 juice, and he speaks of them as being a ' pancreas secundarium.' 

 He had mentioned his results of extirpation of the pancreas to 

 his friend Peyer before the latter wrote the tract just men- 

 tioned ; and Peyer saw in Brunner's experiments a confirmation 

 of his view that the glands described by him carried out an 

 important part of intestinal digestion. Brunner himself how- 

 ever was inclined to think that Peyer's glands only secreted 

 a mere mucosity, and that the really active agent in intestinal 

 digestion was to be found in Brunner's glands. 



In view of the connection between extirpation of the 

 pancreas and glycosuria made known by modern researches it 

 may be interesting to note that in an experiment in which 

 Brunner had first removed the spleen, and on recovery from 

 that operation the pancreas also, " it was especially to be seen 

 " that the animal made water very frequently, and that he was 



11—2 



