The passage of the injected material beyond the ileocæcal valve is
probably due entirely to antiperistalsis in the colon,--a factor
unknown to both Grützner and his opponents. The valve, which is
thoroughly competent for food coming normally from the small intestine
into the large, is curiously incompetent for a substance, even of the
consistency of thick cream, introduced in large amount by rectum. When
the valve first permits the food to enter the ileum, the fluid pours
through and appears suddenly as a winding mass occupying several loops
of the intestine (Fig. 9, 1.50, about ten minutes after the injection).
The mass is continuous from the valve to the other end; antiperistalsis
is therefore not visible in the small intestine under the circumstances
of this experiment. The antiperistaltic waves of the colon, however,
continue running; the transverse and ascending colon are thus almost
emptied, and the small intestine more and more filled with food (Fig.
9, 2.15 and 3.00). After a short time the typical segmenting movements
can be seen in the loops, busily separating the food into small masses,
and over and over again dividing and redividing them.
I have never seen food material pass back from the colon so far as the
stomach; but once, about ten minutes after an injection of 100 c.c. of
warm water, the cat retched and vomited a clear fluid resembling mixed
water and mucus. In the fluid were two intestinal worms still alive.
The importance of the mechanism by which nutrient enemata are passed
backward in the intestine is evident. In the colon the nutrient
material is worked over by the antiperistaltic waves, intimately
mixed with whatever digestive juices may be present, and exposed to
the organs of absorption in that region. If the enemata are large,
the digestive and absorptive processes are by no means confined to
the colon, but may take place along extensive surfaces of the small
intestine. I have repeatedly seen rhythmic segmentation active
throughout many loops of the small intestine, thus exposing the
injected food to the same mixing and absorbing processes as affect the
nutriment which has come through the stomach in a normal manner.
THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONS AND SLEEP
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