Indigestion : an introduction to the study of the diseases of the stomach / by George Herschell.

  • Herschell, George, 1856-1914.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Indigestion : an introduction to the study of the diseases of the stomach / by George Herschell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    diately emulsified when agitated with an alliahne solution. Now, the first action of the pancreatic juice upon the fat molecule is to cause it to take up three molecules of water and spht up into glycerin and fatty acids, the quantity of fat thus acted upon being a very small percentage of the whole amount present in the intestine. This action is due to the presence of a special fat-sphtting ferment, and the reason why the whole of the fat does not undergo this change is due to the fact that this ferment exists only in very small quantity in the pancreatic secretion. In most cases this decomposition of the fats begins in the stomach, but here it is effected by fermentation as the result of the agency of micro-organisms, and some observers have imagined that the change in the intestine was caused in the same manner. This, however, is dis- proved by the fact that the presence of an antiseptic will stop this change in the stomach, but not in the intestine. When the fat thus mixed with fatty acid comes into contact with the alkaHne salts contained in the pancreatic juice, the bile, and the intestinal secretion, it is imme- diately emulsified, and being thus finely divided, is ready to be taken up by the intestinal epithelium, and passed on into the chyle-vessels. This emulsificatiou is very materially aided by the constant motion communicated to the chyme by the peristaltic movements of the intestine. 3. Proteids and gelatin-yielding substances are converted into peptone, and some of this peptone again into leucin and tyrosin. The agent in effecting this transformation IS a ferment named pancreatin, or trypsin, which only acts in the presence of an alkali. Mucin and nuclein are also digested to a certain extent. 4. Milk lohich has passed through the stomach un- changed toiU be curdled. This may occur in anachlor- hydria. The Bile.—The principal action of the bile is to assist in emulsifying the fat in the manner above described. If