556 ME CHAN ISM OF SE CRE TION OF INTESTINAL JUICE. 



between higher centres and the mucous membrane by dividing the 

 intestinal nerves, an accumulation of fluid takes place. Brnnton and 

 Pye-Smith also found that if the inferior ganglia of the solar plexus and 

 their continuation along the superior mesenteric artery are left in con- 

 nection with the gut, this accumulation does not take place. 



L. Hermann l initiated a somewhat different method of investigating 

 the secretion. A loop of intestine was separated from the main gut, and 

 its ends joined so as to form a confluent ring. This was replaced in the 

 intestine, and its contents examined after some weeks. These contents 

 were found to consist of solid material, and it was presumed that this 

 represented the inspissated juice. Blitstein and Ehrenthal 2 continued 

 these experiments, and came to the conclusion that the solid mass found 

 had its origin in two sources; the fir si? being the intestinal fluid, and the 

 second detached intestinal epithelial cells. They noticed micro-organisms 

 also to be present. Fr. Voit, 3 who simply sewed up the ends of an iso- 

 lated loop, found, after the lapse of three weeks, a yellowish-grey mass, in 

 which he recognised no epithelium, and which he regarded as simply 

 inspissated juice. The nature of the fluid excreted in the Thiry-Vella 

 loop has been frequently examined. It is of a yellowish colour, and 

 contains albumin, and also a rather large amount of sodium carbonate. 

 It possesses certain ferment-powers, though with regard to these there 

 is considerable divergence of statement. Thiry 4 found it to dissolve 

 fibrin, but not to affect other proteids. Masloff 5 found it to act feebly 

 on starch, but not on proteids. 



Funke 6 stated that starch injected into isolated loops is not con- 

 verted into sugar. Later observers, 7 experimenting by the above 

 methods, agree that starch is converted into sugar, and llohman's 

 experiments suggest a greater diastatic activity in the upper part of the 

 intestine than the lower. This observer also finds, as Paschutin 8 had 

 previously pointed out from experiments with extracts, that the 

 intestinal juice has the power of inverting cane-sugar. It is to be noted 

 that this is, even markedly, the case, as Gamgee 9 points out, in animals 

 which would have no opportunity, from the nature of their food, of 

 utilising the enzyme causing such a change. Observations made recently 

 by Pregl 10 on a Thiry-Vella fistula established in a lamb, have somewhat 

 completed the knowledge that has accrued from this method of research. 

 He found that the secretion was continuous, but it increased the first hour 

 after food, and this went on to about the third hour. From a length of 

 intestine of 72 cm. he obtained about 5 grms. of intestinal juice per hour; 

 this rate of secretion diminished to the fifth hour, when it reached 3 grms. 

 per hour, and remained at this rate for many hours after. He refers to 

 the prolapse which occurs at first, and with which other observers have 

 found difficulty, and points out that this is evidence of a catarrhal condi- 

 tion, which itself would account for a certain amount of flow, although he 

 failed to notice any difference between the juice reinforced by catarrhal 



1 Arch./, d. ges. Physiol. t Bonn, 1889, Bd. xlvi. 



2 Ibid., 1891, Bd. xlviii. :! Ztsclir. f. Bid., Munclien, 1893, Bd, xxix. 



4 Op. cit. 5 Op. tit. (! "Lehrbuch." 



7 Gumilewski, Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1886, Bd. xxxix. ; Rohmann, op. cit. ; 

 Dobroslawin, " Beitr. z. Physiol. d. Darmsiiftes," Untersuch. a. d. Inst. f. Physiol. u> 

 Histol. in Graz, Leipzig, 1870 ; Lannois ct Lepine, Arch, de physiol. norm, et path., 

 Paris, 1883. 



8 Arch. f. Anat. u. Physiol., Leipzig, 1871. 9 Op. cit. 

 10 Arch.f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1896, Bd. Ixi. 



