NEWLY ESTABLISHED FACTS IN THE PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF THE DUODENUM

Although the small intestine has long been considered the seat of important functions related to digestion and absorption, the clinical interest with respect to it has usually been primarily medical rather than surgical. Since various digestive secretions pour into the upper portions of the intestine, either from the intestinal cells themselves or from the secretory ducts that enter this organ from the pancreas and liver, the changes that are brought about thereby in the chyme are of considerable physiologic significance for the organism. Surgical experiences have been responsible for the gradually acquired belief that the small intestine is something more than the locus of these enzymatic reactions and food absorption. Extensive resections of the bowel have almost always been attended with subsequent nutritive difficulties; and the untoward consequences of acute obstruction in the small intestine, together with the fact that such interference in the upper portions of the bowel are