PANCREATIC JUICE, AND THE DIGESTION OF FAT. 155 



the whole course of the experiment. Its flow, however, is at all 

 times scanty, compared with that of the gastric juice; and we have 

 never been able to collect more than a little over two fluidounces 

 and a half during a period of three hours, in a dog weighing not 

 more than forty-five pounds. This is equivalent to about 36i 

 grains per hour ; but as the pancreatic juice in the dog is secreted 

 with freedom only during digestion, and as this process is in opera- 

 tion not more than twelve hours out of the twenty-four, the entire 

 amount of the secretion for the whole day, in the dog, may be esti- 

 mated at 4,368 grains. This result, applied to a man weighing 1-iO 

 pounds, would give, as the total daily quantity of the pancreatic 

 juice, about 13,101 grains, or 1^872 pounds avoirdupois. 



Pancreatic juice obtained by the above process is a clear, color- 

 less, somewhat viscid fluid, with a distinct alkaline reaction. Its 

 composition, according to the analysis of Bidder and Schmidt, is as 

 follows : 



COMPOSITION OF PAXCREATIC JUICE. 



Water 900.76 



Organic matter (paiK-reatiiu-) . . . . . . . 90.38 



Chloride of sodium ......... 7.36 



Free soda 0.32 



Phosphate of sorla 0.45 



Sulphate of soda ......... 0.10 



Sulphate of potassa ......... 0.02 



{Lime 54 



Magnesia . . . . . . 0.05 



Oxide of iron 0.02 



1000.00 



The most important ingredient of the pancreatic juice is its 

 organic matter, or pancreatim. It will be seen that this is much 

 more abundant in proportion to the other ingredients of the secre- 

 tion than the organic matter of any other digestive fluid. It is 

 coagulable by heat ; and the pancreatic juice often solidifies com- 

 pletely on boiling, like white of egg, so that not a drop of fluid re- 

 mains after its coagulation. It is precipitated, furthermore, by 

 nitric acid and by alcohol, and also by sulphate of magnesia in 

 excess. By this last property, it may be distinguished from albu- 

 men, which is not affected by contact with sulphate of magnesia. 



Fresh pancreatic juice, brought into contact with oily matters at 

 the temperature of the body, exerts upon them, as was first noticed 

 by Bernard, a very peculiar effect. It disintegrates them, and re- 

 duces them to a state of complete emulsion, so that the mixture is 

 at once converted into a white, opaque, creamy-looking fluid. This 



