Their experiments on the bile confirmed the results of Thenard and Crevreuil.
The pancreatic juice is of the specific gravity 1.0026; at 15° of the thermometer: (centigrade, we presume.) Its composition is:
Water, 99.1 parts; animal matter soluble in alcohol, animal matter soluble in water, traces of albumen, mucus, soda, chloride of sodium, chloride of potassium, and phosphate of lime, 0.9 parts. Total, 100. This greatly confirms the analogy long observed between the pancreatic liquor and the saliva.
In the gastric liquor, there are:
Water, 98 parts; lactic acid, muriate of ammonia, chloride of sodium, animal matter soluble in water, mucus, and phosphate of lime, 2 parts. Total, 100.
Dr. Prout and Mr. Children have announced the gastric acid, of which so much has been said, to be the muriatic, while M. Chevreuil had stated it to be the lactic. MM. Leuret and Lassaigne confirm the results of Chevreuil, and that with great confidence in their own accuracy. They found the contents of all the four stomachs of ruminating animals acid. MM. Prevost and Leroyer had stated those of the three first to be alkaline. The observations of Leuret and Lassaigne agree with those of Montegre, (vide Dict. des Sci. Med.) who believes digestion to produce acidity as a result of the regular process.
The fæces become alkaline.
Substances which contain no azote, from whatever class they are obtained, cannot serve for nutrition. We cannot understand this, especially when compared with what follows. "If, on the contrary, they are soluble, one part is absorbed and another is expelled, either by urine or by the anus; such are sugar, gum, &c." This seems to us like a contradiction.
It is impossible, in the present state of science, to determine the chemical change which aliments undergo in the digestive organs; both on account of their mixture and the insufficiency of our means of analysis.
"The absorption of chyle takes place by the villi." "These communicate directly with the lacteals and the vena portæ."