ABSORPTION OF FATS. 539 



feces consists of fatty acid, while under normal conditions the feces 

 contain 1 part neutral fat to about 2-2J parts free fatty acids. It is 

 not possible to state how this increased quantity of fatty acids in the fat 

 of the feces is produced upon the exclusion of the bile from the intestine. 



There is no doubt that the bile is of great importance in the absorp- 

 tion of fats. Still there is also no doubt that rather considerable quan- 

 tities of fat may be absorbed from the intestine in the absence of bile. 

 What relation does the pancreatic juice bear to this fact? 



Upon this point a rather large number of observations on animals 

 have been made by ABELMANN and MINKOWSKI, SANDMEYER, HARLEY, 

 ROSENBERG, H^DON and VILLE, and also on man by FR. MULLER and 

 DEUCHER. 1 In all of these investigations a more or less diminished 

 absorption of fat was observed after the extirpation or destruction of 

 the gland, or the exclusion of the juice from the intestine. The results 

 are very diverse as to the extent of this diminution, as in certain cases 

 no absorption of fat was observed, while, in other cases, a considerable 

 absorption was noted in the same class of animal (dog) and even in the 

 same animal. According to MINKOWSKI and ABELMANN, after the total 

 extirpation of the pancreas, the fat of the food introduced is not absorbed 

 at all, with the exception of milk, of which 28-53 per cent of the fat is 

 absorbed. Other investigators have obtained different results, and HAR- 

 LEY has observed a case where in a dog an absorption of only 4 per cent 

 of the milk fat, or, on the complete exclusion of intestinal bacteria, even 

 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 

 secretion 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 2 ) . This investigator is also of the opinion that 

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

 endocrinic 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 pancreatic juice from the intestine acts upon the other factors 



1 Miiller, " Unters. iiber den Icterus," Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 12; Hedon and 

 Ville, Arch, de Physiol. (5), 9; Harley, Journ. of Physiol., 18, Journ. of Pathol. and 

 Bacteriol., 1895, and Proceed. Roy. Soc., 61. In regard to the other authors see foot- 

 note 1, p. 532. 



2 Lombroso, see Bioch. Centralbl., 3, 67 and 566, and 4, 738; also Compt. rend, 

 eoc. biol., 57; Hofmeister's Beitrage, 8, 11; Pfluger'sjjArch., 112; and Arch. f. exp. 

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



