THE PA Is CREATIC SECRETION. 251 



hitherto examined, it has been found colorless, transparent, and 

 slightly viscid. It is alkaline when fresh, and contains a pecu- 

 liar animal matter named pancreatin and certain salts, both of 

 which are very similar to those found in saliva. In pancreatic 

 secretion, however, there is no sulpho-cyanogen. Pancreatin 

 is a substance coagulable by heat, and in many other respects 

 very like albumen : to it the peculiar digestive power of the 

 pancreatic secretion is probably due-. Like saliva, the pan- 

 creatic fluid, shortly after its escape, becomes neutral and 

 then acid. 



The following is the mean of three analyses by Schmidt : 



Composition of Pancreatic Secretion. 



Water, 980.45 



Solids, 19.55 



Panerealin, . . . . . .1271 



Inorganic bases and salt?, . . . . 6 84 



19.55 



The functions of the pancreas are probably as follows : 



1. Numerous experiments have shown, that starch is acted 

 upon by the pancreatic secretion, or by portions of pancreas 

 put in starch-paste, in the same manner that it is by saliva and 

 portions of the salivary glands. And although, as before 

 stated (p. 212), many substances besides those glands can ex- 

 cite the transformation of starch into dextrin and grape-sugar, 

 yet it appears probable that the pancreatic fluid, exercising 

 this power of transformation, is largely subservient to the pur- 

 pose of digesting starch. MM. Bouchardat and Sandras have 

 shown that the raw starch-granules which have passed un- 

 changed through the crops and gizzards of granivorous birds, 

 or through the stomachs of herbivorous Mammalia, are, in the 

 small intestine, disorganized, eroded, and finally dissolved, as 

 they are when exposed, in experiment, to the action of the 

 pancreatic fluid. The bile cannot effect such a change m 

 starch ; and it is most probable that the pancreatic secretion is 

 the principal agent in the transformation, though it is by no 

 means clear that the office may not be shared by the secretion 

 of the intestinal mucous membrane, whicli alsf> seems to possess 

 the power of converting starch into sugar. 



2. The existence of a pancreas in Carnivora, which have 

 little or no starch in their food, and the results of various ob- 

 servations and experiments, leave very little doubt that the 

 pancreatic secretion also assists largely in the digestion of 



