While the fact is recognized that the pancreas may be the seat of inflammation as in the other glandular organs, the liver, kidneys, etc., it is also apparent a correct diagnosis of morbid changes must be so difficult it would be useless to discuss them at any length in this work. Of all organs similarly constructed probably the pancreas is the least liable to inflammations. Doubtless they take on much the same degenerative changes observed elsewhere, and are secondarily involved by the extension of diseases in adjacent parts.

A discharge of fat from the bowels is supposed to be a diagnostic symptom of pancreatic disorder, but there is no reliable evidence to sustain this opinion, based as it is solely on the known physiological action of the pancreatic juice. That it is the active agent in the digestion of oily substances has been fully demonstrated by M. Bernard and others. The peculiar effect of the juice when brought in contact with oily matters, is to separate them into minute globules; the mixture being converted into a white, creamy-looking fluid. No chemical change occurs; the oil in this process maybe said to have been digested and made ready for absorption. The appearance of fat unchanged in the discharges leads to the belief that disease of the pancreas exists.