STEAPSIN. TRYPSIX. 479 



The action of the pancreatic juice in splitting fats is a process analo- 

 gous to that of saponification, the neutral fats being decomposed, by the 

 addition of the elements of water into fatty acids and glycerin accord- 

 ing to the following equation. C3H 5 .O 3 .R 3 (neutral fat)-h3H 2 O = 

 C 3 H 5 .O3.H3 (glycerin)+3(H.O.R) (fatty acid). This depends upon 

 a hydrolytic splitting, which was first positively proven by BERNARD and 

 BERTHELOT. The pancreas enzyme also decomposes other esters, just 

 as it does the neutral fats (NENCKI, BAAS, LOEVENHART l and others). 

 The fat-splitting enzyme of the pancreas is, according to PAWLOW and 

 BKUXO and many others 2 aided in its action by the bile, and according 

 to EXCEL obeys SCHUTZ-BORISSOW'S rule that the extent of cleavage 

 during a given time is proportional to the square root of the quantity of 

 ferment. The investigations of KANITZ 3 have led to the same 

 results. 



POTTEVIN 4 found that the pancreas (free from water) could form 

 olein from oleic acid and glycerin. It is claimed that the gland can form 

 other esters from oleic acid or stearic acid with other alcohols (amyl 

 alcohol) if we operate only in the absence of water. In the presence of 

 considerable water the pancreas has a reverse saponifying action. (See 

 page 65). 



The fatty acids which are split off by the action of the pancreatic 

 juice combine in the intestine with the alkalies, forming soaps, which 

 have a strong emulsifying action on the fats, and thus the pancreatic 

 juice becomes of great importance in the emulsification and the absorp- 

 tion of the fats. 



Trypsin. The action of the pancreatic juice in digesting proteins 

 w r as first observed by BERNARD, but first proven by CORVISART. S It 

 depends upon a special enzyme called by KUHNE trypsin. This enzyme, 

 a^ previously explained, does not occur in the gland as such, but as tryp- 

 sinogen. According to ALBERTONI 6 this zymogen is found in the gland 

 in the last third of the intra-uterine life. Enzymes more or less like tryp- 

 sin occur in other organs, and are very widely diffused in the vegetable 



1 Bernard, Ann. de chim. et physique (3), 25; Berthelot, Jahresber. d. Chem., 

 1855, 733; Nencki, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 20; Baas, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 

 14, 416; Loevenhart, Journ. of Biol. Chem., 2; Terroine and Z. Morel, Compt. rend, 

 soc. biol., 65, 66. 



2 Bruno, Arch, des scienc. biol. de St. Pe"tersbourg, 7; see also Loevenhart and 

 Souder, Journ. of biol. Chem., 2; v. Fiirth and Schiitz, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 9; 

 Kalaboukoff and Terroine, Compt. rend. soc. biol., 63. 



3 Engel, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 7; Kanitz, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 46. 



4 Compt. rend., 138; Annal. Institute Pasteur, 20, and Bull. soc. Chem. (3), 35. 



5 Gaz. hebdomadaire, 1857. Xos. 15, 16, 19, cited from Bunge, Lehrbuch, 4. Aufl., 

 185. 



6 See Maly's Jahresber., 8, 254. 



