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The secretions of many glands are known to contain substances that are not found in the blood, or, if present, are there in exceedingly small amounts. Then again the cells of certain glands have been found to undergo marked changes during the process of secretion. If, for example, the cells of the pancreas be examined after a period of rest, they are found to contain small granular bodies.
The Pancreas. Lieutaud has seen the pancreas missing and speaks of a double pancreatic duct that he found in a man who died from starvation; Bonet speaks of a case similar to this last. There are several cases of complete transposition of the viscera on record.
For without sugar sufficiently at hand for the cells, no muscle work or nerve work, the essentials of the struggle for existence, are possible. The pancreas is an organ with both an internal and external secretion. The external secretion, long known, evolved by the major portion of the gland, is poured into the small intestine to play the star in digestion.
Some of the doctors declared kidneys sound but liver suspicious; others exonerated liver but condemned one or both kidneys; others viewed kidneys and liver with equal pessimism; still others put those organs aside and shook their heads and unlimbered their Latin at spleen and pancreas. In one respect, however, the eight narrowed to two groups.
The digesting materials produce a flow of bile, and of pancreatic juice, as they pass along the duodenum, by stimulating the excretory ducts of the liver and pancreas, which terminate in that intestine: and other branches of the absorbent or lymphatic system, called lacteals, are excited to drink up, as it passes, those parts of the digesting materials, that are proper for their purpose, by its stimulus on their mouths.
A great Russian physiologist, Pawlow, called attention to the fact that the introduction of a dilute mineral acid, such as the hydrochloric acid, normally a constituent of the stomach digestive fluid, into the upper part of the intestine, provoked a secretion of the pancreas, which is so important for intestinal digestion.
It is a tongue-like mass from six to eight inches long, weighing from three to four ounces, and is often compared in appearance to a dog's tongue. It is somewhat the shape of a hammer with the handle running to a point. The pancreas lies behind the stomach, across the body, from right to left, with its large head embraced in the horseshoe bend of the duodenum.
"At the outset you should have a brief working knowledge of such things as your heart and lungs, your pancreas, liver, big and little intestines and their juices; and I shall, accordingly, give you a brief idea of the various systems, beginning today with the circulatory and respiratory.
The liver is enormous, and generally contains a great quantity of oil, the taste of which you will know if you have ever swallowed a spoonful of cod-liver oil; but in most fishes its old companion, the pancreas, has disappeared.
As radiant as a gray-haired god he towered up in the doorway. The boyish rejuvenation in him was even more startling than before. "I'm feeling so much like a fighting cock this morning," he said, "I think I'll tackle that paper on surgical diseases of the pancreas that I have to read at Baltimore next month!" A little startlingly the gray lines furrowed into his cheeks again.
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