290 
PANCREATIC JUICE. 
Immediately around the solitary glands, the alveoli and re- 
ticulum undergo some modification ; the former are larger, 
measuring ^ 3 . of an inch in length, by ^so m breadth ; and 
deeper,— so deep, in fact, that their floor is no longer visible. 
The septa are thinner, measuring °f an mc b m breadth, 
and furnished with a single capillary, instead of the triple 
chain of the rest of the membrane (fig. 7). 
{To be continued .) 
ON THE PANCREATIC JUICE. 
By M. Kroeger. 
(. Abridged from an article in the e British and Foreign Med.-Chir. 
Review .) 
The ingestion of food exercises great influence over the 
secretion of the pancreas, it becoming much increased in 
quantity almost immediately after meals, and reaching its 
maximum within about half to three quarters of an hour after 
the meal, when it is about six or ten times greater than it had 
been before the ingestion of food. Water has not the same 
effect: on the contrary, when this is taken simultaneously 
with solid food, it prevents the latter from causing so evident 
an increase. The concentration of the pancreatic juice 
appears frequently diminished in the same degree as the 
quantity is increased ; but this phenomenon is not a constant 
one, and at all events the absolute quantity of solid sub- 
stances is greater after meals than before. 
Concerning the physiological action of the juice, its power 
of transforming starch into sugar is not doubted. According 
to the author’s experiments, 1 gramme of the fresh juice 
transforms within half an hour, under the influence of a tem- 
perature of 35° C. 4*672 grammes of dry starch into sugar; 
and as 1 gramme of fresh juice contains 0*014 grammes of 
pancreatic ferment, 1 gramme of this ferment would transform 
333*7 grammes of dry starch. If we assume, with Freric.hs, 
that an adult man requires daily about 490 grammes (= 1 5 
ounces nearly) of starch to compensate the daily loss of 
carbon, the quantity of pancreatic juice necessary for the 
transformation of this starch into sugar would be less than 
105 grammes, while the quantity actually secreted amounts 
to more than 5000 grammes. Kroeger is, therefore, of the 
same opinion with Bidder and Schmidt, viz., that the pan- 
