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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![gelatinous substances of connective tissue are never digested until they have been subjected to the action of dilute acids, which causes swelling, or to the action of hot water, which shrivels them up. Elastin is dis- solved and forms elastoses that are not convertible into peptones. The quantity of ferments in the pancreatic juice presents consider- able variations, which chiefly depend on the rate of secretion and on the character of the diet. If more pancreatic juice is secreted in a given time unit, the percentage of ferments is usually correspondingly reduced, and vice versa. The effect of the diet is the following: If the diet contains much proteid material, large quantities of tryptic fer- ments are excreted; when consisting chiefly of milk and bread, cor- respondingly large quantities of the amylolytic ferments are poured into the intestine (W. Wassilieff). M. Abelraann has reported a number of interesting experiments on the assimilation and the metabolism of different articles of food after extirpation of the pancreas in dogs. From 7 to 24 grams of nitrogen (45 to 155 grams of albumin) in the form of meat, bread, and milk were given daily, and it was found that 44 per cent, was absorbed; 151 to 176 grams of starchy food were given daily, and 57 to 71 per cent, was assimilated. Fat, when given in the form of butter, lipanin, or as olive oil, in quantities of from 36 to 78 grams daily, was not absorbed, but was split up and passed in the feces as free fatty acids or as soaps. From 28 to 53 per cent, of the fat of milk, however, was absorbed. [Halliburton and Brodie find that the pancreatic juice ob- tained from temporary pancreatic fistula in dogs precipitates casein from milk in a form they provisionally term pancreatic casein. This action differs from that of gastric rennet, but pancreatic casein is converted into true casein by rennet. As regards its solubility, pancreatic casein is intermediate between casein and caseinogen. Kiihne, Sir W. Roberts, and Edkins previously observed the coagulation of milk by extracts of the pancreas and by Benger's Liquor Pancreaticus. Vernon has shown that there is a pancreatic rennin, and that, like trypsin, it exists in the gland as a zymogen and is not a single chemic substance, but a series of rennins of varying degrees of stability. Sahli has introduced as a rneans of diagnosis glutoid capsules containing iodoform. If the capsule comes in contact with pancreatic juice, the iodoform is liberated and can be detected, but when there is disease of the pancreas inter- fering with its secretion, or when, from any cause, the capsule is retained in the stomach, iodoform is not liberated. In utilizing this test as a means of estimating the existence of pancreatic secretion it is essential that the motor power of the stomach be normal.—Ed.] The Bile.—The bile, secreted by the liver, is also poured into the duodenum and must be considered. While it is now well known that the bile exercises no chemic effect on the food, it neverthe- less plays an important part in the process of digestion: in the first place, it tends to alter the reaction of the intestinal contents ; in the second place, it exercises a direct effect upon intestinal function in dif- ferent ways. The most important function of the bile of course is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21170010_0029.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
