DIGESTION OF THE ALBUMINS. 181 



this barrier by diffusion, and probably enter both the blood- and the 

 lymph-current, and are then eliminated in the urine. A formation 

 of glycogen from disaccharides directly is apparently not possible. 



The rapidity with which resorption takes place in the small intes- 

 tine seems to vary with the character of the sugar. In dogs Alber- 

 tini thus found that of 100 grammes of glucose, 60 grammes are 

 absorbed in the course of the first hour, while of maltose and cane- 

 sugar from 70 to 80 grammes and of lactose only 20 to 40 grammes 

 disappear within the same period of time. . 



The ingestion of very large amounts of disaccharides and mono- 

 saccharides leads to a general disturbance of intestinal digestion and 

 results in diarrhea. A corresponding amount of starch, on the 

 other hand, is without effect in this respect. This is no doubt owing 

 to the fact that in the latter case inversion and resorption proceed 

 paripassu, so that the bacteria have but little chance of setting up 

 fermentative changes, which lead to the formation of substances 

 that directly increase the peristalsis owing to their irritating prop- 

 erties. In the presence of abnormally large amounts of sugars as 

 such, on the other hand, resorption is not sufficiently rapid, and in 

 the presence of the increased amount of pabulum an increase of 

 bacterial fermentation beyond the normal takes place. As a result 

 various acid decomposition-products of the carbohydrates, such as 

 lactic acid, butyric acid, acetic acid, formic acid, succinic acid, to- 

 gether with carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen, are formed in 

 increased amounts. 



DIGESTION OF THE ALBUMINS. 



The digestion of the albumins takes place in the stomach and 

 in the small intestines under the influence of the pepsin and the hy- 

 drochloric acid of the gastric juice and the trypsin of the alkaline 

 pancreatic juice respectively. We know that the presence of the 

 former is not altogether necessary, however, and that the pancreatic 

 juice is in itself sufficient to accomplish the digestion of the albu- 

 mins, but under normal conditions the gastric juice also plays a part. 

 We know, as a matter of fact, that albuminous material which has 

 been first subjected to the action of pepsin-hydrochloric acid and then 

 to trypsin is more rapidly and more completely hydrolyzed than when 

 acted upon by the trypsin alone. Of the relative extent to which 

 the one and the other enters into the process our knowledge is not 

 complete. We may imagine that in the stomach a primary dissolu- 

 tion of the solid constituents of the food takes place, and that the 

 soluble products which are thus formed are further digested by the 

 pancreatic juice. This actually occurs to a certain extent, but we 

 further know that in the stomach certain albuminous food-stuffs are 

 broken down (nucleoproteids) with the liberation of constituents 

 which are insoluble in the gastric juice, and which pass the pylorus 

 as such and are then modified by the pancreatic juice. Tryptic di- 



