250 DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 



comparatively, very thick ; it coagulates readily, being rich 

 in albumen. 1 It is alkaline, like all salivas, and, when 

 brought in contact with the product of the stomach, im- 

 pregnated with the gastric juice, it neutralizes the acidity of 

 the latter, and begins to act in its turn. By means of the 

 ferments which it contains, it acts simultaneously on the 

 amylaceous substances and the albuminoids: transforming 

 the former into sugar, by the saliva, and the latter into pep- 

 tone, by the gastric juice. This latter effect is different from 

 that produced by the pepsin, inasmuch as in this case lique- 

 faction takes place instantly, without the intermediate stage 

 of porphyration. This juice is also allowed to possess the 

 property of making an emulsion of the fats (Cl. Bernard), 

 even separating some of them into glycerine and fatty acids; 

 but the latter of these two effects appears to be produced 

 only when the pancreatic juice is decomposed, and the former 

 only when the fat and pancreatic juice are closely mingled 

 together by violent agitation : as these conditions are not 

 realized in the intestine, we must conclude that the pancre- 

 atic juice has no physiological effect upon the fats ; it may also 

 be directly ascertained by opening the body of an animal 

 while the process of digestion is going on, that the fats are 

 not in a state of emulsion, but are found in masses in the in- 



1 The identity of the pancreas and the salivary glands, even in 

 an anatomical point of view, is denied by Giannuzi, whose recent 

 researches have led him to consider the pancreas as rather resem- 

 bling the liver. " The excretory tubes of the pancreas have very 

 thin walls, lined inside with a columnar epithelium. They have 

 not the same connections with the secretory vesicles as the salivary 

 glands; but they form around them a ne*t composed of very tine 

 tubes, which have no epithelium, and surround the pancreatic cells 

 with their meshes. This net may be compared to that of the bil- 

 iary ducts. The network of the excretory tubes of the different 

 vesicles, which form the same glandular lobule, have connections 

 between them, and form a common network. The pancreatic 

 vesicles have uo coat. The pavement epithelium of the vesicles is 

 formed of flattened cells, having a nucleus and a prolongation. 

 In short, they are very similar to those of the salivary glands ; 

 their nucleus, however, is more easily perceived, and their proto- 

 plasm is more granular, and contains fatty granulations. The 

 semiluiiar bodies in the sub-maxillary glands, described by Giau- 

 nuzi, and since discovered by Kolliker, lleidenliain, and Boll, in 

 the salivary glands, are not found in the glandular vesicles." (See 

 p. 2J1, Giaimuzi, " Comptes-reiidus de 1' Academic des Sci- 

 ences.") 



