170 A Manual of Veterinary Physiology. 



The salts present are sodium chloride in abundance, 

 potassium chloride in traces, sodium carbonate and 

 phosphate, calcium and magnesium phosphates in small 

 quantities. The total solids appear to be subject to great 

 variation, but the salts are constant. The organic solids 

 are remarkable for the amount of proteid present in them. 



Uses of the Secretion.— The pancreatic juice is poured 

 into the bowel in the horse by a duct common to the 

 pancreas and liver ; in the ox the two ducts are separate, 

 and open within an inch or two of each other. I have 

 seen a similar arrangement in the horse. Pancreatic juice 

 is essentially a digestive fluid, acting as it does on all the 

 elements of food, viz., proteids, fats, and carbo-hydrates : 

 all of these undergo certain changes — the proteids into 

 peptones, the fats into fatty acids and glycerin, and the 

 carbo-hydrates into sugar. These changes are so definite 

 that it has been assumed, with very good reason, that each 

 is brought about by a distinctive ferment, though every 

 attempt to isolate them has failed. It is convenient, how- 

 ever, to speak of them as separate ferments, the total 

 amount of which in the horse has been estimated by Hoppe- 

 Seyler to be 80 per 1000— forming, in fact, nearly the total 

 organic matter existing in the secretion. 



The ferments found in the pancreatic fluid arc : 



Trypsin — which converts proteids into peptones. 



Amylopsin — which converts starch into sugar. 



Steapsin— which splits up tats into fatty acids ami glycerin. 



A milk-curdling ferment has been described ; but in 

 adult digestion there can be but little need for one. 



The action of this ferment on proteids is much the same 

 as we have previously studied in the gastric juice, proteids 

 being converted into peptones, especially those difficult of 

 this conversion in the stomach, and the bemi peptones of 

 the stomach are split up into Leucin and tyrosin ; but there 

 are certain important differences which serve to distinguish 

 between proteid digestion in the stomach and that in the 

 intestines, thus : 



