The digestion and assimilation of fat in the human body : an epitome of laboratory notes on physiological and chemical experiments bearing on this subject / by H. Critchett Bartlett.

  • Bartlett, H. Critchett (Henry Critchett)
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The digestion and assimilation of fat in the human body : an epitome of laboratory notes on physiological and chemical experiments bearing on this subject / by H. Critchett Bartlett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    A wide line of demarcation is thus revealed between the direct ferments, complete in their own organism, like yeast, and the indirect soluble ferments which are the product of organism but are not so organized in them¬ selves as to permit of reproduction; and this is evidenced by the opposite reactions produced upon the two different classes of ferments by the antiseptics enumerated. The Emulsifying Power of the Pancreatic Fluid. Bernard was enabled to demonstrate that no other fluid secreted in the digestive organs, except that from the pancreas, can produce the complete digestion of a sufficiency of fats or oils. The remarkable property of forming an emulsion by mechanically holding the fat or oil in minute globules, with water filling up the interstices, is almost alone possessed by this juice. I am desirous of making an amendment to M. Bernard’s statement that the power of emulsion is altogether peculiar to the pancreatic fluid, because I find that it is also produced to a very much smaller extent by the saliva. I am, however, completely in accord with the observation that the after saponification is only at present provable when oils or fats are subjected to the digestive fluids of the duodenum. Without refining too much on the possibility of a similar function perhaps appertaining to the saliva, it is evident that, as a very slight saponi¬ fying action is supposed to assist in conducting the fats of food through the walls of the absorbents, a still more minute agency of the same description may exist in the saliva without our being able to perceive it. The state of emulsion is beautifully apparent if a drop from a sample of milk is placed upon the stage of the microscope. The globules are found floating about in