556 MECHANISM OF SECRETION OF INTESTINAI JUICE. 
between higher centres and the mucous membrane by dividing the 
intestinal nerves, an accumulation of fluid takes place. Brunton and 
Pye- Smith also found that if the inferior ganglia of the solar plexus and 
their continuation along the superior mesenteric artery are left in con- 
nection with the gut, this accumulation does not take place. 
L. Hermann l initiated a somewhat different method of investigating 
the secretion. A loop of intestine was separated from the main gut, and 
its ends joined so as to form a confluent ring. This was replaced in the 
intestine, and its contents examined after some weeks. These contents 
were found to consist of solid material, and it was presumed that this 
represented the inspissated juice. Blitstein and Ehrenthal 2 continued 
these experiments, and came to the conclusion that the solid mass found 
had its origin in two sources ; the first being the intestinal fluid, and the 
second detached intestinal epithelial cells. They noticed micro-organisms 
also to be present. Fr. Voit, 3 who simply sewed up the ends of an iso- 
lated loop, found, after the lapse of three weeks, a yellowish-grey mass, in 
which he recognised no epithelium, and which he regarded as simply 
inspissated juice. The nature of the fluid excreted in the Thiry-Yella 
loop has been frequently examined. It is of a yellowish colour, and 
contains albumin, and also a rather large amount of sodium carbonate. 
It possesses certain ferment-powers, though with regard to these there 
is considerable divergence of statement. Thiry 4 found it to dissolve 
fibrin, but not to affect other proteids. Masloff 5 found it to act feebly 
on starch, but not on proteids. 
Fuiike 6 stated that starch injected into isolated loops is not con- 
verted into sugar. Later observers, 7 experimenting by the above 
methods, agree that starch is converted into sugar, and Kohman's 
experiments suggest a greater diastatic activity in the upper part of the 
intestine than the lower. This observer also finds, as Paschutin s had 
previously pointed out from experiments with extracts, that the 
intestinal juice has the power of inverting cane-sugar. It is to be noted 
that this is, even markedly, the case, as Gamgee 9 points out, in animals 
which would have no opportunity, from the nature of their food, of 
utilising the enzyme causing such a change. Observations made recently 
by Pregl 10 on a Thiry-Vella fistula established in a lamb, have somewhat 
completed the knowledge that has accrued from this method of research. 
He found that the secretion was continuous, but it increased the first hour 
after food, and this went on to about the third hour. From a length of 
intestine of 72 cm. he obtained about 5 grms. of intestinal juice per hour; 
this rate of secretion diminished to the fifth hour, when it reached 3 grms. 
per hour, and remained at this rate for many hours after. He refers to 
the prolapse which occurs at first, and with which other observers have 
found difficulty, and points out that this is evidence of a catarrhal condi- 
ti< m, which itself would account for a certain amount of flow, although he 
failed to notice any difference between the juice reinforced by catarrhal 
1 Arch./, d. ges. Phi/sioL, Bonn, 1889, Bd. xlvi. 
- Ibid., 1891, Bd. xlviii. :: Ztschr. f. Bid., Miinchen, 1893, Bd, xxix. 
4 Op. cit. 5 Op. c'd. 6 "Lehrbuch." 
7 Gumilewski, Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1886, Bd. xxxix. ; Rohmann, op. cit. ; 
Dobroslawin, " Beitr. i. Physiol, d. Darmsaftes, " Vntersueh. <>■ d. Inst. f. Physiol, u. 
Histol. in Graz, Leipzig, 1S70 ; Lannois et Lepine, Arch, de physiol. norm, ct path., 
Paris, 1883. 
8 Arch.f. Anat. u. Physiol., Leipzig, 1871. 9 Op. cit. 
10 Arch.f. d. ges. Physiol., Bonn, 1896, Bd. lxi. 
