190 FUNCTIONS OP NUTRITION. 



intestine, emptying it so far as possible by gentle pressure, isolating 

 its cavity by the application of two ligatures 15 or 20 centimetres apart, 

 and returning it to the abdominal cavity. After a few hours the 

 animal was killed, and the fluid, which had collected in the isolated 

 portion of the intestine, taken out and examined. Colin adopted a 

 similar method, in the horse, with greater precautions. While diges- 

 tion was in full activity he took out, through an opening in the flank, 

 a loop of small intestine, which he isolated by two compressors, made 

 of flat wooden or metallic strips, enveloped by velvet ribbon, and fast- 

 ened in such a way that the inner surfaces of the intestine were retained 

 in close contact, without bruising their tissues. The compressors being 

 applied from one to two metres apart after the included portion of in- 

 testine had been emptied by gentle pressure, the whole was returned 

 into the abdomen, the wound closed by sutures, and the animal killed at 

 the end of half an hour. 



On the average, 100 grammes of fluid had accumulated within this 

 time. It was clear, with a slightly yellowish or amber tint, alkaline in 

 reaction, and with a specific gravity of 1010. According to the analysis 

 of Lassaigne, it was composed as follows : 



COMPOSITION OF INTESTINAL JUICE FKOM THE HOESE. 



Water - .... 981.0 



Albuminous matter ........ 4.5 



Sodium chloride 

 Potassium chloride 

 Sodium phosphate 

 Sodium carbonate 



10000 



Thiry separated a portion of the small intestine from the remainder 

 by two transverse sections, leaving the mesentery and vessels of the 

 isolated portion uninjured, and then united by sutures the divided ends 

 of the remaining portions, so as to reestablish the continuity of the 

 intestine, but with a portion, 10 or 15 centimetres long, left out. Of 

 this isolated portion, still nourished by its blood-vessels, he closed one 

 end by sutures, so as to make of it a blind extremity, while the other 

 he fastened to the edges of the external wound in such a way as to 

 make a permanent fistula. When the parts had healed, and natural 

 digestion was reestablished, he collected the fluid discharged from the 

 isolated portion of intestine. This operation has been repeated by other 

 observers. The objection to it is that the isolated portion of intestine, 

 after being for some weeks precluded from taking part in the process 

 of digestion, becomes partially atrophied, and cannot be relied on as 

 furnishing a secretion similar to the normal intestinal juice. The results 

 obtained vary, some of them indicating that the secretion converts starch 

 into sugar, and has a dissolving action on coagulated albuminous mat- 

 ters, others that these properties are absent or but slightly developed. 

 Colin found that the fluid obtained from the horse by his method had 



