ABSORPTION OF FATS. 535 



then very large quantities may be absorbed without causing any dis- 

 turbance, and the absorption may be very complete. RUBNER found 

 the following: On partaking 508-670 grams of carbohydrates, as wheat 

 bread, per day, the part not absorbed amounted to only 0.8-2.6 per cent. 

 For peas, where 357-588 grams were eaten, the loss was 3.6-7 per cent, 

 and for potatoes (718 grams) 7.6 per cent. CONSTANTINIDI found on 

 partaking 367-380 grams of carbohydrates, chiefly as potatoes, a loss 

 of only 0.4-0.7 per cent. In the experiments of RUBNER, as also of 

 HULTGREN and LANDERGREN, 1 with rye bread the utilization of car- 

 bohydrates was less complete, and the loss in a few cases rose even to 

 10.4-10.9 per cent. It at least follows from the experiments made thus 

 far that man can absorb more than 500 grams of carbohydrates per diem 

 without difficulty. 



We generally consider the pancreas as the most important organ 

 in the digestion and absorption of amylaceous bodies, and it is a ques- 

 tion how these bodies are absorbed after the extirpation of the pan- 

 creas. As on the absorption of proteins, so also on the absorption of 

 starch, the observations have given variable results. In certain cases 

 the absorption was not impaired, while in others it was, on the contrary, 

 rather diminished, and with dogs devoid of pancreas it has been found 

 that the absorption was decreased to 50 per cent of the starch partaken 

 (ROSENBERG, CAVAZZANi 2 ). 



Em unification used to be considered as of the greatest importance 

 in the absorption of fats, and this emulsion occurs in the chyle on the 

 introduction into the intestine of not only neutral fats, but also of fatty 

 acids. The fatty acids do not exist as such in the emulsified fat of the 

 chyle. The investigations of I. MUNK, later confirmed by others, have 

 shown that the fatty acids undergo in great part a synthesis into neutral 

 fats in the walls of the intestine, and are carried as such by the stream 

 of chyle into the blood. This synthesis seems to take place in the 

 mucous membrane (MOORE and others 3 ) . 



The assumption that the fat is absorbed chiefly as an emulsion is 

 partly based on the abundance of emulsified fat in the chyle after feed- 

 ing with fat, and partly on the fact that a fat emulsion is often found 

 in the intestine after such food. As an abundant cleavage of neutral 



1 Rubner, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 15 and 19; Constantinidi, ibid., 23; Hultgren and 

 Landergren, Nord. med. Arch. 21. 



2 Cavazzani, Centralbl. f. Physiol., 7. See footnote 1, p. 532; also Lombroso, 

 Hofmeister's Beitrage, 8. 



3 Munk, Virchow's Arch., 80. See also v. Walther, Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 

 1890; Minkowski, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 21; Frank, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 

 36; Moore, see Biochem. Centralbl., 1, 741; Frank and Hitter, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 

 47; Noll, Pfliiger's Arch. 136. 



