The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1869-07-29
PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION.

The principal constituents of the bile
are cholestrine. glycocholic or bile acid.
and coloring matter. the second of which
however existing in much the largest pro
portion. This highly OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
secretion, the amount of which, like the
saliva and gastric juice, depending more
upon the demand for its use, than any
sterotyped rules fixing an =unvarying
quantity, is conveyed into the duodenum
through what is called the daetus conf
n,unts choZedocus; (gall duct, and after
subscribing its destined purposes in the
process of Qualification, VIZ: that of pre-
cipitating and rendering insoiuple for
time the unabsorbed albuminous matters,
obyiating destructive chemical changes,
tendency to fermentation and the irritat
ing influence of the gastric juice by neu-
tralizing its acid reaction, and acting as
stimulus both to the intestinal secretory
glands and coats Of the intestines, thus
aiding In the maintenance Of their perls-
taltie (undulatingl movements etc., be-
comes in part excrementitious, passing
off with the faces; while the remaining
portion is reabsorbed, again taken into
the circulation to answer some further
design, or officiate in some new ca pacity +;
and is ultimately carried off by the res
piratory process, and by the skin. The
liver then, like the lungs, is depuratory
(purifying) organ, the arrangement or
suspension Of whose function is soon ex-
perienced, and the peculiar fluid elimina-
ted by it from the blood, as we have
seen, could not well be dispensed with, at
least with impunity; but its presence how
ever in the stomach in any considerab BILE
quantity, it should be rememb ered, is alb
normal, and should be promptly obviated.
The pancreatic fluid, being almost iden-
teal in its composition with the saliva,
differing only in slight increase of solid
material with a want of the sulphocyano-
gen, possesses the property, in common
with the latter, of acting upon starchy
substances. efecting their conversion into
sugar. Its emulsifying power however,
is greatly enhanced by the admixture OF
secretion from the walls of this portion of
the digestive canal-and the bile, as is
also its property of acting upon farina-
ceous substances without the bile; but if
acidulated, their action, Ike that of the
gastric juice, is only upon the azotized
compounds, no longer having the power
of acting upon starch,
Directly opposite the hillary duct is
that of the pancreas, so that the secre-
tions which it is their office to convey into
the duodenum, and Which play such an i'm
portant part in the digestive process. are
at once commingled. Beginning abruptly
at this point, there are arranged numer-
Gus transverse folds called raErulo COM
rentes, whose object is, not only to aid in
mixing thoroughly these secretions with
the alimentary mass, but doubtless also
to increase the suface, and consequently,
the absorbing power. These folds, largest
in the duodenum, first division of the
small intestine, though not limited to it,
gradually diminish both in size and num-
Der, until they cease entirely a little
further along in the canal.
Besides the glands already pointed out,
there are many others which it is not
necessary either to name or describe, as
the Office of their secretions is byno means
we'll undertood but that they contribute
to the perfection Of the digestive func-
ton, is certain, perhaps in preserving
the alkalinity Of the chyle in its passage
through the small intestine, from which
the nutritive materials are mostly absorb
ed,-and it is not improbable that their
office is as definite as that of oxygen or
hydrogen in the formation of water.
The residual mass, on passing from
the small to tie large intcstine-whose
function is that Of a receptacle for the
waste rather than to facilitate absorption
though this takes place from it TO lmi-
ted extent-changes Its reaction and
again becomes acid, tie object Of which
is doubtless to dissolve out and prepare
for absorption, in its passage through this
organ, the little remaining nutrition not
yet separated.
As already intimated. absorption, es-
pecially of the fluids imbibed, takes place
from all parts of the prima-viia, but chy-
LITIGATION having been completed at the
lower extremity of the duodenum, the
Opaque milky emulsion is carried along
through the balance of the small intes-
tine by its per;staltic action, to be expos
ed to the mouths of a multitude Of lac
teals thick " scattered over the particles
of this portion of the intestinal tube.an
whether endowed with intelligence or
otherwise, they seem to possess the
property of selecting the nutritious por-
ton of the chyle, or that destined to be-
come part and parcel of the body, and
rejecting with equal precision, whether
from the size of the vessels tben,so,ros
or some other condition, the innutr;t;ons
By the numerous minute vessels le,d.
ing from these lacteals, are conveyed III,
hfe-sustaining principles to the first series
of mesenteric glands, passing THROUGH
which, no doubt, some important change
is effected in the nutritive particles. an
proximating them it may be. in some de-
gree, to the vitalrzed tissues which they
are soon to become. From these they
are passed on, through fewer number