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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    Lecture I. SUMMAEY.—Digestion is a rAcuLTT or Function Common to Animals AND Plants—Exterior Digestion—Interstitial Digestion—General Characters and Properties of the Digestive Ferments—Preparation of Artificial Digestive Juices—Diastatic Ferments and the Diges- TioN OF Starch—Thbobt of the Process—The Respective Shares op Saliva and Pancreatic Juice in the Digestion op Starch—When can Starch be said to be Fully Digested ?—Absolute Energy of Dias- tase—Digestion of Cane-sugar—and the Invbrsive Ferment, Digestion lias been nsually regarded as tlie special attribute of animals. They receive into tbeir ali- mentary canal the food which they require for their sustenance in a crude form. It is there subjected to the action of certain ferments which transmute its elements, by a peculiar chemical process, into new forms which are fitted for absorption. Looked at in this restricted sense, plants have no digestive function. They possess no alimentary canal nor any vestige of a digestive apparatus. But when the matter is examined more profoundly it is seen that plants digest as well as animals, and that the process in both kingdoms of nature is fundamentally the same. In order to understand this generalization—which was first propounded by Claude Bernard, and con- stitutes one of the most important fruits of his splendid labours''—it is necessary to recognize di- gestion under two types or conditions—namely, a * Claude Bernard—Leqons sur les pMnomenes de la vie, T. II. Edited after his death by Dastre—Paris, 1879.