On the digestive ferments and the preparation and use of artificially digested food : being the Lumleian lectures for the year 1880, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians / by Wm. Roberts.

Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the digestive ferments and the preparation and use of artificially digested food : being the Lumleian lectures for the year 1880, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians / by Wm. Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Table of the Digestive Juices and their Ferments. DIGESTIVE JUICES. FERMENTS CONTAINED IN THEM. ACTION ON FOOD MATERIALS. Salivary Diastase or Changes Starch into sugar and dextrine. ( h Cm'rlliTio'l^AvmPTit J Changes Proteids into pep- I tones in an acid medium. ■ Pancreatic Juice-( 6. Curdling Ferment... c. Pancreatic Diastase d. Emulsive Ferment / Changes Proteids into pep- < tones in alkaline and ( neutral media. Curdles the casein of milk. Changes Starch into sugar and dextrine. Emulsifies and partially saponifies fats. BUe Assists in emulsifying fats Intestinal Juice... | 6. ? Curdling Ferment 1 Changes cane-sugar into 1 invert-sugar. Curdles the casein of milk. An examination of the table shows that a long and complicated series of ferment-actions is required to accomplish the digestion of our food. Starch is attacked at two points—in the mouth and in the duodenum—by two ferments, salivary and pan- creatic diastase, which are substantially identical. Albuminous matters are also attacked at two points—in the stomach and in the small intestine— but here the two ferments, pepsin and trypsin, are certainly not identical. The ferment, of which the only known characteristic is to curdle milk, is found in the stomach and in the pancreas—and I think also in the small intestine. The bile is not known to possess any true ferment-action, but it assists, by its alkalescent reaction and by its physical properties,