PUTREFACTION IN THE INTESTINE. 519 



indeed die with symptoms of starvation. In these cases the excrement 

 has the odor of carrion, and this was considered a proof of the action 

 of the bile in checking putrefaction. The emaciation and the increased 

 want of food depend, naturally, upon the imperfect absorption of the 

 fats, whose high calorific value is reduced and must be replaced by the 

 taking up of larger quantities of other nutritive bodies. If the quan- 

 tity of proteins and fats be increased, then the latter, which can be only 

 incompletely absorbed, accumulate in the intestine. This accumulation 

 of the fats in the intestine only renders the action of the digestive juices 

 on proteins more difficult, and thus increases the amount of putrefac- 

 tion. This explains the appearance of fetid feces, whose pale color is 

 not due to a lack of bile-pigments, but to a surplus of fat (ROHMANN, 

 VOIT). If the animal is, on the contrary, fed on meat and carbohy- 

 drates, it may remain quite normal, and the leading off of the bile does 

 not cause any increased putrefaction. The carbohydrates may be 

 uninterruptedly absorbed in such large quantities that they replace 

 the fat of the food, and this is the reason why the animal on such a diet 

 does not become emaciated. As with this diet the putrefaction in the 

 intestine is no greater than under normal conditions even though the bile 

 is absent, it would seem that the bile in the intestine exercises no pre- 

 ventive action on putrefaction. 



To this conclusion the objection may be made that the carbohy- 

 drates, which are capable of checking putrefaction, can, so to speak, 

 undertake the anti-putrid action of the bile. But as there are also cases 

 (in dogs with biliary fistula) where the intestinal putrefaction is not 

 increased with exclusive meat diet, 1 it is maintained that the absence 

 of bile in the intestine, even by exclusive carbohydrate food, does not 

 always cause an increased putrefaction. 



Although the question as to the manner in which the putrefactive 

 processes in the intestine under physiological conditions are kept within 

 certain limits cannot be answered positively, still it may be asserted 

 that the faint acid reaction, and the absorption of water, and the rela- 

 tively rapid movement, of the contents of the small intestine and their 

 absorption, are important factors. 



That the acid reaction in the intestine has a preventive influence on 

 the putrefactive processes follows from the existing relation between 

 the degree of acidity of the gastric juice and the putrefaction in the 

 intestine. Since the investigations and observations of KAST, STADEL- 

 MANN, WASBUTZKI, BIERNACKI and MESTER had proved that an 

 increased putrefaction in the intestine occurred when the quantity of 

 hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice was diminished or deficient, 



1 See Hirschler and Terray, 1. c. 



