On the digestive ferments and the preparation and use of artificially digested food : being the Lumleian lectures for the year 1880, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians / by Wm. Roberts.

  • Roberts, Sir William, 1830-1899.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the digestive ferments and the preparation and use of artificially digested food : being the Lumleian lectures for the year 1880, delivered before the Royal College of Physicians / by Wm. Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    was fed on a diet wherein tlie only possible source of nitrogen was peptone prepared from blood-fibrin, arrived at the conclusion that peptone supplied nitrogen to the solid tissues, and that it possessed a nutritive value equal to albumen, or even sUghtly superior; and that therefore it could not be looked on as a bye-product of digestion, but as the chief resultant of the transformation of proteids in the alimentary canal. The experiments above cited seem sufficient to settle definitely the question raised by Briicke and Yoit, and to establish the nutritive value of pep- tone as a source of nitrogen to the tissues. It seemed, however, desirable to obtain direct proof of the nutritive value of peptonised milk as compared with the natural article. My observations led me to fche conclusion that it was easier to get a supply of peptonised aliment suitable for invalids by the artificial digestion of milk by pancreatic extract than by any other method. But in so important a matter as the feeding of invahds, in- ference and conjecture seemed hardly a sufficient basis for actual practice. The questions I proposed to myself were—(1) Is artificially digested, or peptonised, milk alone suffi- cient to sustain nutrition ? and (2) is it as efficient in this respect as natural milk ? For the purpose of answering these questions I procured four kittens, of the same brood, eight weeks old. Kittens at this age thrive perfectly on an exclusively milk diet.