On the Pancreatic Secretion of Dogs in the Interdigestive Period

Abstract

The biolographical study shows us that the periodical secretion of the pancreatic juice is not to be discovered in the subsequent reports after Boldyreff, in spite of that they speak of the “periodic” secre-tion. There is no periodicity at all in the figures found in all those papers. And the secretion was continuous in the great majority of cases reported there.
By adjusting the management of the dog with the chronic pan-creatic fistula, the present writer was able to see at will an abundant or scanty secretion of the pancreas in the interdigestive period. When the secretion was small, secretory phase and non-secretory one were noted alternatively. There are fluctuations in the secretory velocity regardless whether the secretion is abundant or scanty, but there is no regularity or periodity at all.
In reality the “periodical” secretion of the pancreas has been thus missed by all the subsequent observers, irrespective whether tley were able or not to have non-secretion period.
Boldyreff has right to speak of the “periodity” from the figures given in his paper, but his work is still standing alone, without having been followed by similar data by other experimentalists.
In following his description the experimental sequences are very likely to establish with ease the conditional reflexes. If one follows his procedures, and repeats it sufficiently, it maybe easy to have similar results with his.
In terminal, it may be added that no parallelism was found be-tween the course of the pancreatic secretion and that of the salivary secretion in the interdigestive period.
In short: the “periodic” secretion of the pancreas in the non-feed-ing interval is no natural phenomenon.