On the fate of Peptone in the Lymphatic System

Abstract

IN 1881 Hofmeister first published the view that the peptone formed in digestion in the stomach and small intestine is on absorption by the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal mainly taken up and assimilated by the leucocytes of the adenoid tissue there present, and is then carried into the blood (by the way of the thoracic duct) transformed in such a way that it no longer gives the reaction characteristic of that substance. It will be well to state very briefly what led Hofmeister to this opinion. Although it has been called in question notably by Briicke', Voit and Bauer2, and Eichhorst' that the proteids taken as food are actually absorbed as peptones, and the view put forward that much is or could be absorbed as albumins and globulins merely in solution in the acid or alkaline fluids of the alimentary canal, still since the researches of Pl6sz4, Maly' and others, who showed that peptone can replace ordinary proteid as food, it has been generally admitted that the digestion of proteid which can be accomplished in a flask in the laboratory is a crude imitation of what takes place in the organism. The more recent researches of Lea6, in pointing out the differences that obtain in the two cases, do not lead to reason for doubting that proteids are transformed into peptone, and that, as soon as they are formed, absorption of them begins. 1 B rucke. " Beitrage zur Lehre uber die Verdauung." Sitzungsber. d. A kad. d. WiMU.