516 DIGESTION. 



no absorption, took place. The conditions may vary in the different 

 cases, and the behavior is not the same in different varieties of animals. 



As shown by LOMBROSO, there exists an essential difference between 

 the action of the extirpation of the gland or a prevented flow of the secre- 

 tion into the intestine. In the last case, as the experiments reported 

 by NIEMANN show, no essential disturbance of the absorption takes place, 

 while the total extirpation of the gland is followed by a marked dis- 

 turbance (LOMBROSO 1 ). This investigator is also of the opinion that the 

 pancreas, independent of the external secretion in any way (by endo- 

 crinic bodies) , influences the absorption of the foodstuffs and the activity 

 of the pancreas enzymes in the intestine. In order to judge this view 

 it would be of the greatest interest to know how the exclusion of the pan- 

 creatic juice from the intestine acts upon the other factors of the diges- 

 tion, such as upon the formation of the secretions and their activity. 

 As to this we know at present very little, but the work of ZUNZ and 

 MAYER (see page 509), indicates that such a reverse action is possible. 

 Under these circumstances it is not possible to give LOMBROSO' s views 

 too great a prominence. 



LOMBROSO has also found that after the extirpation of the pancreas 

 in the dog sometimes more fat is eliminated than was contained in the 

 food ; that this eliminated fat, which depends upon a fat secretion in the 

 intestinal canal, has a different composition from the introduced fat, and 

 that in these cases an absorption of fat also takes place. That some fat 

 can be absorbed in animals even in the absence of the bile as well as pan- 

 creatic juice has been shown by the investigations of HEDON and VILLE 



and CUNNINGHAM. 2 



The reason for the fact that the fat absorption u diminished in the 

 absence of bile from the intestine must be sought for in the above-men- 

 tioned role of this fluid. It is more difficult to state why the absence 

 of pancreatic juice causes a reduction in the absorption of fat. The most 

 natural view is that the neutral fats are here less completely split, but 

 this does not seem to be the case, because the non-absorbed fat of the 

 feces consists, on the exclusion of bile and pancreatic juice (MINKOWSKI 

 and ABELMANN, HARLEY, HEDON and VILLE, DEUCHER), chiefly of 

 free fatty acids. A still unknown change caused by gastric or intestinal 

 lipase or by micro-organisms may produce a cleavage of the fat in these 

 cases. The imperfect fat absorption after the extirpation of the pancreas 

 can possibly be explained by the removal of a considerable part of the 

 alkalies necessary for the formation of the emulsion and for the solution 



'Lombroso, see Bioch. CentralbL, 3, 67 and 566, and 4, 738; also Compt. rend. 

 :soc. biol., 57; Hofmeister's Beitrage, 8, 11; Pfliiger's Arch., 112; and Arch. f. exp. 

 Path. u. Pharm., 56 and 60; Niemann, 1. c. 



2 He"don and Ville, 1. c.; Cunningham, Journ. of Physiol., 23. 



