398 



H, T. Brown and J. Heron. 



[May 13, 



of the secretions of the small intestine are somewhat conflicting. 

 Thiry (" Wien Sitzungsber.," 50, 77), in 1864, by isolating a portion 

 of the small intestine of a living animal, obtained an albuminous 

 secretion which he found had no action upon starch, and with this 

 observation Funke agrees. On the other hand, Masloff (" Unters. 

 Physiolog. Inst. Heidelberg" [2], 1879, p. 290), Frerichs, and Busch 

 (" Virchow's Archiv," xiv, p. 140) state that the small intestine has 

 the power of transforming starch. 



When commencing to investigate the hydrolytic action of the small 

 intestine of the pig, we made use of an aqueous infusion of the tissue, 

 made by acting upon one part of the well-washed and finely-minced 

 intestine with five parts of water for from ten to fifteen hours. 



Such an aqueous extract was prepared from three different portions 

 of the intestine. 



(1.) A portion of the duodenum immediately below the glands of 

 Brunner. 



(2.) The agminated Peyer's glands (Peyer's patches) cut from the 

 jejunum. 



(3.) Portions of the jejunum and ileum not containing any of the 

 agminated Peyer's glands. 



20 cub. centims. of the clear filtered infusion made with each of the 

 above portions of intestine were added to 100 cub. centims. of a cane- 

 sugar solution containing 4'557 grms. of sugar per 100 cub. centims. 

 On digesting for three hours at 40° C, and allowing subsequently to 

 stand in the cold for twenty-four hours, scarcely a trace of inversion 

 was found to have taken place. 



The action of equal quantities of the various infusions upon starch- 

 paste was scarcely more marked ; about 3 grms. of starch, in the form 

 of starch-paste, being employed in each case, at a temperature of 

 40 — 45° C. After digestion for sixty minutes, none of the samples 

 of starch-paste showed any signs of limpidity. After sixteen hours, 

 No. 1 was found limpid, but contained only soluble starch ; No. 2 

 was perfectly limpid, and contained a little erythrodextrin ; whilst 

 No. 3 was absolutely unacted upon, the gelatinisation being still as 

 perfect as at the outset of the experiment. 



The pig, from which was derived the intestine used in the above 

 experiments, had been killed after fasting for thirty-six hours. It 

 occurred to us that the absence of any well-marked amylolytic action 

 might be due to this fact, and that a different result would probably 

 be obtained by infusing an intestine in which the various glands had 

 been more recently active. In order to test this, an animal was killed 

 about two hours after administering a liberal allowance of barleymeal. 

 In this case the aqueous extract of the small intestine possessed a 

 somewhat greater action upon starch than in the previous experiment, 

 but the transforming power was still very feeble, more than two hours 



