252 Dr. V. Harley. On the Breaking-up 



The Splitting up of Fat in various parts of the Alimentary Ganal in 

 Normal Dogs on a Milk Diet. 

 The following are the results obtained in normal dogs : — 



Table I. — Normal Dog, weighed 6*66 kilos., killed by Chloroform 

 Seven Hours after being fed with Milk. 





Total ether 

 extract. 



Neutral fat. 



Free fat 

 acids. 



Fat acids as 

 soaps. 





Total. 



p. c. 



Total. 



P. 



c. 



Total. 



p. c. 



Total. 



p. c. 





9-471 



100 



9-456 



99 



•85 



0-012 



0-12 



-003 



0-03 



Found in — 























3-503 



100 



2-691 



76 



•82 



0-768 



21 -92 



0-044 



1-26 



Small intestine. 



0-845 



100 



0-214 



25 



•33 



0-600 



71 -01 



0-031 



3-66 



Large intestine . 



0-791 



100 



0-296 



37 



■42 



0-445 



56-26 



0-050 



6-32 



In Table I it is seen that the total quantity of fat given is dimi- 

 nished in the stomach to almost a third during the seven hours of 

 digestion, so that of the 9 '471 grams of fat that had been given in 

 the milk only 3*503 grams were found, the rest having passed 

 through the pylorus. The composition of this fat is, however, 

 entirely changed, for while the milk fat contained 99*85 per cent, as 

 neutral fat, that in the stomach was only 76*82 per cent. 



We see, further, that the neutral fats have disappeared from the 

 stomach more rapidly than the others as, although 9 "456 grams of 

 neutral fat were given, only 2' 691 grams remained. 



The formation of free fat acids is very marked, for whereas the 

 milk only contained 0*12 per cent, the stomach contained as much as 

 21*92 per cent. This speaks strongly in favour of Ogata and Marcet's 

 view that neutral fat can be broken up into free fat acids in the 

 stomach, unless one is to believe that the fat acids had been retained 

 in ' the stomach, and that the increased percentage was obtained by 

 some condition allowing the passage of the neutral fats and not the 

 fat acids from the stomach. But it may further be seen that this 

 would not account for the increase in the free fat acids, as the total 

 quantity of fat acids given was only 0*012 while the stomach con- 

 tained no less than 0' 768. It may, therefore, be regarded as con- 

 clusively established that the excess of fat acids was formed from 

 the neutral fat of the milk in the stomach itself. 



More remarkable is the proportion of fat acids combined as soaps. 

 For the milk itself contained only - 03 per cent, of fat acids in the 

 form of soap, while the stomach contained 1*26 per cent. That 

 there had been an absolute formation of soap and not any increase 



