BILIARY AND INTESTINAL SECRETIONS. ' 239 



alone is unable to bring about an absorption of fat. DASTRE'S 

 experiments consisted in producing artificially in dogs the 

 reverse of the above conditions. After ligating the bile-duct 

 he established a fistulous opening between the gall-bladder 

 and the middle of the small intestine. In spite of the fact 

 that the pancreatic juice entered the duodenum as usual, 

 no fat was absorbed from the entire upper half of the small 

 intestine. Not until the biliary fistula was passed did the 

 lacteals show a milky appearance to indicate fat absorption. 

 This shows how important is the function of the bile for the 

 rapid and proper absorption of fats, and indicates clearly 

 that physiological ends are best served when pancreatic juice 

 and bile act together upon fat. 



The important role of the bile in the digestion of fats can 

 also be shown very clearly in experiments carried out in glass. 

 HEIDENHAIN, WILLIAMS, and MARTIN have all shown that the 

 presence of bile in a reaction mixture of fat and pancreatic 

 lipase markedly increases the velocity of the formation of 

 fatty acid and alcohol. Especially commendable are the 

 recent experiments of RACHFORD, BRUNO, and GLAESSNER, 

 carried out with purified ferments instead of ordinary extracts 

 of the pancreas, or the pure pancreatic and biliary secretions 

 themselves. GLAESSNER'S 1 results are given in the following 

 table and deal with human pancreatic juice. It is interesting 

 to note that what SCHEPOWALNIKOW observed in dogs is true 

 here also, namely, the* simultaneous presence of both bile 

 and intestinal juice favors the lipolytic activity of the pan- 

 creatic juice more than that of either one by itself. The 

 last column indicates the percent of fatty acid formed in 

 twenty-four hours. 



Fatty 

 9 acid. 



100 c.c. olive-oil + 20 c.c. pancreatic juice : . . =22% 



100 c.c. olive-oil +20 c.c. pancreatic juice + 10 c.c. bile =30% 



100 c.c. olive-oil+20 c.c. pancreatic juice+ 10 c.c. intestinal juice = 35% 

 100 c.c. olive-oil + 20 c.c. pancreatic juice + 10 c.c. bile+10 c.c. in- 

 testinal juice =40% 



1 GLAESSNER: Zeitschr. 1. physiol. Chem., XL, p. 470. 



