ORGANS OF THE BODY. 



501 



food into the stomach, it is of a deep red colour. In this condition bright 

 scarlet blood flows from the veins of the organ, while in the inactive state 

 the capillaries contain a dark fluid. 



The secretion of the gland or pancreatic juice (succus pancreatics) has 

 been obtained from the living animal. So obtained, it is a strongly 

 alkaline viscid fluid (Bernard), while that collected from a permanent 

 pancreatic fistula is a very 

 thin liquid (Ludwig and 

 Weinmann}. In thefirst al- 

 bumen was digested (Ber- 

 nard, Corvisart], starch. 

 was transformed into grape 

 sugar, the neutral fats 

 (after first forming an 

 emulsion) were split up 

 into glycerine and free 

 fatty acids. In the latter 

 form the first of these pro- 

 perties was absent. The 

 thick liquid, whose per- 

 centage of water is about 

 90, is secreted by the 

 gland when the latter is 

 of a deep red colour from 

 increased vascularity ; the 

 thinner liquid containing 

 about 95-98 per cent, of 

 water wlien it is pale. 



The amount of fluid 

 secreted is greatest within 

 the hours before mentioned 



, ,. T Fi. 497. Gland tubules from the pancreas of the rabbit, after 



during digestion. It Varies, Sattotti. a, strong excretory canal ; 6, the same of an acinus 



however, to a great extent delicate ^P^T P ass * es between the cells - 



at other times, so that calculations as to the amount produced daily are 



found to differ considerably. 



The most essential constituents of the fluid consist, in the first place, 

 of an albuminoid substance, which separates, in a gelatinous form on cool- 

 ing below freezing point, from the thicker kind of pancreatic juice, but 

 not from the thinner fluid ; then, again, of a ferment occurring in both 

 forms of the fluid, which converts starch very rapidly into grape sugar. 

 Further, as Corvisart has pointed out, there is present in the first modifi- 

 cation of the fluid another ferment which digests albumen, and whose 

 action does not cease on neutralisation, or even weak acidulation of the 

 secretion (Kuhne). Finally, there is a third fermenting substance, which 

 effects that peculiar decomposition of the fats already mentioned. The 

 change also alluded to produced in the albuminates is of great interest, 

 namely, a process of disintegration, with the formation of an albumen 

 peptone, as well as considerable quantities of leucin and tyrosin (Kulmc). 

 A gelatin petone has also been so obtained (ScJiwcder). 



The constituents of pancreatic juice obtained by incineration, and 

 amounting to 0'2-0'75 and 0*9 per cent., are lime, earths, magnesia and 

 soda, chlorides of sodium and calcium, phosphates of sodium, calcium, and 

 magnesium, sulphates of the alkalies, and traces of iron combined with 



