PANCREATIC  EMULSIONS. 
143 
The  extract  is  thus  shown  to  contain  135  times  as  much  of 
bile-constituents  and  other  organic  substances  (exclusive  of  oily 
matter)  as  the  oil,  and  15  times  as  much  of  inorganic  elements. 
Those  two  classes  of  bodies  together  form  78453  per  cent,  of  the 
extract,  but  only  1*024  of  the  oil.  In  a  tablespoonful  of  the  oil, 
which  comprises  240  grains,  there  are  therefore  present  hardly 
2-J  grains  of  the  above  matters,  while  the  extract  is  almost  wholly 
composed  of  them. — London  Chemical  Neivs,  Jan.  5,  1866. 
PANCREATIC  EMULSIONS. 
Of  all  the  new  remedial  agents  which  are  now  being  employed 
by  the  medical  profession,  the  Pancreatic  Emulsions,  introduced 
by  Dr.  Dobell,  are  perhaps  the  most  noteworthy.  Some  time 
must  elapse  before  their  real  value  can  be  established ;  but  the 
satisfactory  results  which  have  already  been  obtained  with  them 
in  the  treatment  of  consumption,  will  induce  all  physicians,  who 
keep  pacejvith  the  age,  to  give  them  a  fair  trial.  Should  they 
prove  as  useful  as  Dr.  Dobell  believes  them  to  be,  their  intro- 
duction will  be  referred  to  with  delight,  by  those  who  maintain 
that  medicine  can  make  but  little  progress  until  therapeutics 
and  physiology  are  more  firmly  united.  The  Pancreatic  Emul- 
sions are  rational  remedies,  and  were  devised  to  counteract  the 
wasting  effects  of  a  morbid  condition  which  Dr.  Dobell  detected 
in  consumptive  patients.  Some  years  ago,  Dr.  Dobell's  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  the  fact,  that  many  consumptive  patients 
disliked  fat,  and  the  results  of  a  careful  examination  of  a  series 
of  cases  which  came  under  his  notice  at  the  Royal  Infirmary  for 
Diseases  of  the  Chest,  proved  that  this  dislike  for  fat  was  com- 
mon to  the  great  majority.  These  results  closely  corresponded 
with  those  published  directly  afterwards  by  Mr.  Jonathan 
Hutchinson,  in  a  valuable  suggestive  paper,  "  On  the  form  of 
Dyspepsia  which  often  precedes  and  attends  Phthisis."  With  a 
view  of  testing  by  direct  experiment,  whether  this  dislike  for 
fat  was  due  to  some  abnormal  condition  of  the  pancreatic  secre- 
tion, Dr.  Dobell  determined  to  treat  a  series  of  cases  of  consump- 
tion with  the  pancreatic  juice  of  the  pig.  After  many  tedious 
experiments,  in  which  he  was  assisted  by  Mr.  Heathorn,  a  rising 
