TAKr-}  Lecithin.  183 
The  value  of  lecithin  in  nutrition  is  also  shown  in  a  paper  by 
Usuki.  The  author  found  in.  experiments  on  dogs  that  lecithin  has 
a  favourable  influence  on  the  saponification  of  neutral  fat,  and  that 
it  thus  accelerates  the  digestion  of  fat.  As  regards  digestion  in 
general,  the  only  doubtful  point  is  whether  lecithin  exerts  a  favour- 
able or  a  harmful  influence  upon  it,  or  upon  the  digestive  ferments. 
This  point  has  not  yet  been  settled.  Certain  conclusions  may,  how- 
ever, be  drawn  from  the  communications  of  Hewlett,  Furth,  Schiitz, 
Kiittner,  KalaboukofT  and  Terroine.  Furth  and  Schiitz  found  that 
bile  has  the  power  of  augmenting  the  action  of  the  fat-splitting 
and  albumin-splitting  pancreatic  ferments,  which  they  consider  to 
be  closely  connected  with  the  presence  of  bile  salts.  Nencki  had 
previously  made  a  similar  observation.  Hewlett,  on  the  other  hand, 
considered  the  favourable  influence  upon  these  ferments  to  be  due 
to  the  lecithin  content  of  bile ;  Furth  and  Schiitz  were  only  able  to 
confirm  this  in  the  case  of  an  alcoholic  solution  of  lecithin.  Kiittner 
attempted  to  test  more  carefully  the  influence  of  lecithin  upon  the 
digestive  ferments  ;  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  definite  additions 
of  lecithin  sometimes  hasten  and  sometimes  delay  the  enzyme  action 
of  gastric  or  pancreatic  juice.  He  was,  however,  unable  to  offer  a 
reliable  explanation  of  the  matter.  KalaboukofT  and  Terroine 
have  expressed  the  decided  opinion  that  diastatic  ferments  are 
not  influenced  by  lecithin.  The  results  of  their  investigations  are 
as  follows:  "The  addition  of  lecithin  to  pancreatic  juice  never 
hastens  its  decomposing  action  on  monobutyrin ;  it  hastens  very 
slightly  the  action  upon  oil,  but  only  in  relatively  high  concentra- 
tions. The  lipolytic  action  of  glycerin  extracts  of  gastric  mucous 
membrane  remains  unaltered  by  the  addition  of  lecithin ;  intestinal 
lipase  is  unaltered  by  the  addition  of  lecithin.  The  addition  of 
lecithin  has  no  effect  upon  the  rapidity  of  starch  hydrolysis,  of  diges- 
tion of  casein  and  coagulated  albumin,  or  upon  the  coagulation  of 
milk  and  pancreatic  juice."  These  results  throw  doubt  upon  Hew- 
lett's view  mentioned  above.  The  communications  of  Bang,  Wohl- 
gemuth, Lapidus  and  Starkenstein  also  show  that  lecithin  does  not 
possess  the  accelerating  action  assigned  to  it  by  Hewlett. 
Slowtzoff,  as  a  result  of  his  lecithin  experiments  on  man,  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  lecithin  occasioned  retention  of  nitrogen,  ac- 
companied by  a  diminution  of  sulphuric  acid  excretion  in  the  urine. 
He  considers  this  to  be  related  to  the  decomposition  of  albuminous 
bodies,  and  concludes  that  what  occurs  is  retention  of  albumin  and 
not  retention  of  other  nitrogenous  products  (extractives).    In  his 
