in DIGESTION IN THE MOUTH AND STOMACH 175 



certain fats, particularly where, as in milk, the fats are emulsified. 

 This especially affects the new-born, who have no pancreas to 

 secrete ferments. The fact that after extirpation or destruction 

 of the pancreas there can still be a certain cleavage and assimila- 

 tion of alimentary fats, finds partial explanation by the presence 

 of a lipolytic ferment in the gastric juice. 



According to Nasse, hydrochloric acid has some solvent 

 action on starch, transforming it into amidulin or soluble starch, 

 which is then, according to Briicke, converted into erythrodextrin ; 

 according to Leube, saccharose and lactose are split into mono- 

 saccharides. 



VI. The influence of the spleen on the digestion effected by 

 the gastric juice deserves special consideration. This point was 

 taken up in our laboratory by Tarulli and Pascucci (1901), who 

 repeatedly compared on different dogs the digestive activity of 

 the gastric juice, before and some days or weeks after the extir- 

 pation of the spleen, as well as the digestive power of the gastric 

 juice in splenectoniised animals before and after administration of 

 a watery infusion of congested spleen, i.e. spleen excised from dogs 

 in full digestion. 



Tarulli and Pascucci collected the gastric juice from a fistula 

 made in large dogs by Claude Bernard's method. Before feeding 

 them with the experimental meal (100 grms. cartilage and tendons) 

 which was to promote the flow of gastric secretion, they were 

 given a preparatory meal (500 grins, cooked meat, 500 grms. 

 broth, 200 grms. bread), with the object as far as possible of 

 exhausting the pepsin accumulated in the gastric glands; and 

 after 16 hours the mucous membrane of the stomach was washed 

 out with an isotonic and slightly warmed solution of sodium 

 chloride. 



For digestion in vitro, a small cube of boiled egg -white 

 weighing 1 grm. was placed in contact with 10 c.c. pure gastric, 

 juice at a temperature of 39 C. for 24 hours. From the loss of 

 weight in the egg-albumin, the digestive power of the gastric 

 juice could be determined with sufficient accuracy. 



The results of the experiments performed by this method may 

 be summarised in the two following propositions : 



(a) After extirpation of the spleen the digestive power of the 

 gastric juice is constantly weakened in a greater or less degree. 



(6) The administration by the mouth of an infusion of con- 

 gested spleen 8 hours before the "experimental meal increased the 

 digestive power again for one, two, or even three days. 



In order to form a concrete idea of these effects, three series of 

 experiments performed on three dogs may be studied in a diagram 

 (Fig. 58, A B C). 



It should be noted that the lowering of the digestive power of 

 the gastric juice after splenectomy is apparent not merely in the 



