The digestion of sugars in health / by W.G. Aitchison Robertson.

  • Robertson, W. G. Aitchison (William George Aitchison)
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The digestion of sugars in health / by W.G. Aitchison Robertson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    12/14 (page 12)
    First, As regards the quantity of fluid in the stomach. In the case of cane sugar there was always much fluid in the stomach, even after the lapse of two hours. In no ca.se was it less than 86 c. c. It is very different witli invert sugar, however. When it was injected much fluid could be withdrawn up to the end of the first hour, but after two hours the stomach was entirely or almost empty, as only in one or two cases could a few cubic centimetres be extracted. The stomach therefore becomes quickly emptied of invert sugar. Second, If we compare the columns in the table after one and two hours, we see what a reduction has taken place in the amount of sugar. What has become of this invert sugar ? It must either have been rapidly absorbed through the walls of the stomach, or have been passed on through the pylorus into the duodenum. Probably both of these processes go on at the same time. IV. Intestinal Digestion of Cane Sugar. Neither the biliary nor the pancreatic secretions seem to have any inversive action on cane sugar. B^champ thought that the pancreas had a slight inversive action, but the change which he saw was in all probability due to bacteria causing decomposition, and not to any ferment. The mucous membrane of the small intestine, however, secretes a ferment which has been named invertin, and which causes cane sugar to become hydrated and split up into glucose and Isevulose. This fermentative action of the succus entericus was first described by Claud Bernard. The ferment can be isolated, and then acts on cane sugar, but much more slowly than when in contact with the mucous membrane of the small intestine. Bernard found that it was present in every part of the small, but not in the large intestine. Sir William Eoberts also describes this ferment, and has extracted it from the small intestine of the pig, fowl, and hare. It will not, he finds, pass through a filter, and its inversive action is very slow, usually requiring two hours at 38° C. before any reduction of copper takes place. Hoppe-Seyler does not think that this is a true ferment of the intestinal mucous membrane, but believes that it is one introduced from without, and Busch could not find that cane sugar underwent any change during its stay in the bowels. Hay, however, found this ferment constantly present in every part of the small intestine of the foetus, and in such a case it could not have been introduced from without. Demant has also described this invertin ferment, and also a diastatic one in the small intestine, but he finds that they require to act on the sugar or starch for four or five hours before any inversion of sugar or conversion of starch occurs. Brown and Heron have also studied this question, and find tliat a watery infusion of the small intestine possessed no inversive action on cane su^ar, but when they used the dried and powdered mucous I