EXPE RIME NT A L E VIDENCE. 5 5 5 
collects in the interior; the second, in making' extracts of the intestinal 
mucous membrane and investigating the digestive properties of such an 
extract. 
A method of permanently isolating a portion of the intestine was 
first devised by Thiry. 1 The abdomen of an animal having been opened, 
a piece of intestine was cut away from its continuity with the main gut 
without dividing the mesentery. The two ends of the main gut were 
then brought together and ligatured, so that union of the cut surfaces was 
brought about, the continuity of the intestine being thus re-established. 
The isolated portion of the gut was then closed by a ligature at its lower 
end, while the upper end was sewn into the incision in the abdominal 
wall, a blind sac being thus formed. Yella 2 modified this procedure by 
inserting the lower end of the isolated gut also into the abdominal wall; 
thus affording two openings for the separated intestine. This operation, 
performed with due antiseptic precautions, is of constant service at the 
present day, and is generally described as the establishment of a 
" Thiry-Vella " fistula. 
Older observers, such as Bidder and Schmidt, 3 had ligatured off from 
the general tract short lengths of the intestine, and, after replacing them 
in the abdominal cavity for some hours, had examined the accumulated 
liquid. 
The chief facts that have been brought to light by these methods 
are as follows : — -In the absence of any stimulus, little or no secretion 
has been obtained, as a rule. Thiry, 4 with mechanical or electrical 
stimulation, obtained a thin yellowish alkaline secretion, albuminous in 
character. After food had been taken, although no previous secretion 
was manifest, some fluid began to form. According to Eohmann, 5 the 
introduction of starch, sugar, or peptone provokes intestinal secretion. 
The administration of pilocarpine results, according to Masloff, 6 in 
secretion. Gamgee, 7 however, found that it was possible to produce 
considerable increase of other secretions by the administration of 
pilocarpine without affecting the succus entericus to any extent. This 
result he attributed to the fact that probably different regions of the 
intestine reacted with different vigour to pilocarpine, the lower portion 
of the intestine secreting a greater quantity than the upper. 8 
With respect to the existence of nervous influences on the secretion, 
Thiry found no result to come about from stimulation of the vagi. 
Budge 9 and Lamansky 10 obtained increase of secretion after extirpation 
of the coeliac and mesenteric plexuses, but Adrian u did not succeed in 
obtaining this increase. Brunton and Pye-Smith 12 found, in confirmation 
of an observation of Moreau, 13 that if all nervous connections be severed 
1 " Eine neue Methode den Diinndarm zu isolieren," Sitzungsb. d. k. AJcad. d. Wissensch., 
Wien, 1864, Bd. i. 
2 Untersuch. ~. Naturl. d. Menseh. u. d. Thiere, 1881, Bd. xiii. 
3 "Die Verdauungssafte und der Stoffwechsel," Leipzig, 1852. 4 Op. cit. 
5 Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1887, Bd. ii. 
6 Untersuch. a. <t. physiol. Inst. d. Univ. Heidelberg, 1882, Bd. ii. 
7 "Physiological Chemistry," London, 1893, vol. ii. 
8 That pilocarpine provokes an intense secretory charge in the crypts of Lieberkidm of the 
large intestine, is manifest from the experiments of Heidenhain (Hermann's " Haudbuch," 
Bd. v.). 
9 Verhandl. d. k. k. Leopold-Carol. Acad. d. Naturforscher., 1860, Bd. xix. 
10 Ztschr.f. rat. Med., 1866. 
11 Beitr. z. Anat. v. Physiol. (Eckhard), Giessen, 1863, Bd. iii. 
12 Rep. Brit. Ass. Adv. Sc., London, 1874, 1875, 1876. 
13 Compt. rend. Acad. d. sc, Paris, 1363, Bd. lxvi. 
