Diseases of the intestines and peritoneum / by Hermann Nothnagel ; edited, with additions by Humphrey D. Rolleston ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel.
- Hermann Nothnagel
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Diseases of the intestines and peritoneum / by Hermann Nothnagel ; edited, with additions by Humphrey D. Rolleston ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![CHEMIC PROCESSES THAT OCCUR IN THE INTESTINE. By Dk. Fkitz Obermayer. OuE knowledge of intestinal digestion is deficient and is not consist- ent with our knowledge of normal physiology, and still less as regards pathologic perversions. Much less is known about the chemic func- tions of the intestine than about these functions of the stomach. This is mainly due to difficulty in obtaining the contents of the intestines (chyme) in a satisfactory state for chemic analysis, but, in addition, the complicated nature of the chemic processes that go on in the intestine makes the solution of the problem far from easy. While the stomach- tube makes it an easy matter to examine the stomach-contents, it is only in those comparatively rare cases of intestinal fistula that an oppor- tunity is provided of investigating in a satisfactory manner the chemic processes in the intestines during life. The feces give no information whatever about the processes that go on in the upper portions of the intes- tine. It is surprising, therefore, to learn that careful examinations of the intestinal contents were made long before similar examinations of the stomach-contents were undertaken. As early as 1662 Regnier de Graaf made the first experimental intestinal fistula in animals, whereas the first examination of the stomach-contents was not made until 1752, by Reaumur. In the following paragraphs an attempt will be made to give a con- densed summary of the present state of our knowledge of intestinal digestion. The chyme which passes from the stomach into the intestine is sub- jected to the action of both organized and unorganized ferments. The latter are the products of the living cells of the glandular appendages of the intestine [pancreas, liver] or of the small glandular tubules in the mucosa of the intestine; the former are represented by certain micro-organisms that cause fermentation of carbohydrates and of pro- teids (putrefaction). These complicated chemic processes can be studied both with the aid of artificial intestinal fistulas and by observing the changes that are brought about in the different classes of food-stuffs by the action of the various intestinal secretions. The latter method gives more instructive results, and will therefore be considered first.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21170010_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
