From the "Lancet," Feb. 1st, 1874.

"In the experiments upon digestion, lately performed by Czerny and Latschenberger (Virchow's Archiv., Band lix., Heft ii.), comparative trials were made between the materials introduced into the large intestine, and the same acted upon outside of the body with the secretion obtained from the mucous membrane. Portions of hard-boiled white of egg and shreds of fibrine remained unchanged, preserving the sharpness of their angles and borders, when exposed to the action of the mucus at a temperature of 100° for two or three hours. No emulsion could be obtained by shaking up olive oil and the mucus; and no conversion of starch into sugar could be thus produced, even after the lapse of several hours. Similar cubes of hard-boiled white of egg were retained in the rectum in small perforated capsules for no less a period than ten weeks, and yet on withdrawal exhibited no indication of any digestive action. Experiments made with soluble albumen in like manner showed that the large intestine of man exerts no digestive action upon it.

Other experiments, made with a view of determining the absorptive capacity of the portion of intestine under observation, and which, as before stated, was estimated at about 240 square centimetres, showed that in the course of seven hours the quantity of water that could be taken up was from 617 to 772 grains. They showed also that although the intestinal juices exerted no digestive action on albumen, and no emulsifying action on fat, yet that the walls of the intestine were capable of absorbing both albumen when introduced in the soluble form, and oil if it had been previously emulsified. The quantity of soluble albumen absorbed was always proportionate to the time. Any irritation applied to the intestine checked the process of absorption, and, if violent, stopped it altogether. Raw white of egg was found to be an unfavourable form for absorption. The best mode of preserving life by means of injection is often an important subject of con sideration, especially in cases of cancer of the intestine; and these experiments accord with the observations and recommendations of Leube, that whilst comparatively little benefit can be obtained from the injection of the raw material of our ordinary diet, considerable quantities can be absorbed, and much improvement can be produced in the strength and health of the patient, if the substances have been previously subjected to operations by which they are partially digested - as, for instance, if fat be emulsified, if albumen be reduced to the soluble state, and if starch have been converted into glycose.