DIGESTION. 



not proceed further in the intestine. On the contrary, the bile 

 does not disturb the digestion of albumin by means of the pancre- 

 atic juice in the intestine. The action of these digestive secre- 

 tions, as above stated, is not disturbed by the bile, especially not by 

 the faintly-acid reaction due to organic acids which are habitually 

 found in the upper parts of the intestine. In a dog killed while 

 digestion is going on, the faintly -acid, bile-containing matter of the 

 intestine shows a strong digestive action on albumin. 



The precipitate formed on the mixing of the acid contents of 

 the stomach and the bile dissolves easily partly by the acid reac- 

 tion in an excess of the bile, also in the NaCl produced by the 

 neutralization of the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice. Since 

 in man the exit passages of the bile and the pancreatic juice open 

 near one another, and therefore the acid contents of the stomach 

 are probably immediately neutralized by the bile as soon as it 

 enters, it is doubtful whether a precipitation of albumin by the bile 

 occurs in the intestine. 



Besides the previously-mentioned processes caused by enzymes, 

 there are others of a different nature going on in the intestine, 

 namely, the putrefaction processes caused by micro-organisms. 

 These are less intense in the upper parts of the intestine, but 

 increase in intensity towards the lower part of the same, and 

 decrease in the large intestine because of the absorption of water. 

 A positive proof that the micro-organisms are active in these 

 processes lies in the fact that they occur very abundantly in the 

 contents of the intestine; and it is to be remarked that these 

 organisms occur in largest quantities in the lower parts of the 

 intestine, where the contents have the most disagreeable odor. 

 No putrefaction occurs, on the contrary, in the intestinal canal of 

 the foetus, which follows from the fact, proved by ZWEIFEL, 

 HOPPE-SEYLER, and SENATOR, that in the contents of the same 

 only undecomposed bile-acids and bile-pigments occur, while the 

 otherwise regularly-occurring products of putrefaction in the 

 intestinal canal are absent. 



The putrefaction processes in the intestine are somewhat differ- 

 ent from those of the pancreas digestion ; and these two processes 

 are essentially different from each other in the products which they 

 yield. In the pancreatic digestion there are formed, so far as is 

 known, besides albumoses and peptones, amido-acids and ammonia. 



