Chinese Journal of Physiology

54 H.C. HOU anp R. K. §, LIM

does not necessarily increase the basal secretion (12), and although this observation does not prove that the presence of normal amounts of residue in the intestine is not able to stimulate any secretion, it suggests that a more efficient chemical factor must be sought for elsewhere and particularly in the stomach. Whether the humoral excitants are spontaneously increted or are related to food residues remains to be determined, although the latter appears the more probable.

SUMMARY

1. Observations on the secretory behaviour of variously denervated gastric pouches have shown that with the vagus intact there is a greater variability of the basal secretion. Severance of the enteric connexions between the pouch and main stomach results in a diminished basal secretion, indicating that the integrity of these connexions assist the maintenance of the basal secretion, The sympathetic exerts no appreciable influence. In fact secretion still occurs under basal conditions after all extrinsic nerves have been divided.

2. The gastric response to meals cannot be predicted from the level of the basa] secretion, as meal stimulation is indirect, involving motor activity (emptying time), and humoral and nervous secretory mechanisms. A distinction must therefore be made between the response to direct stimulation, e.g., by histamine or gastrin injections, and the response (“reactivity”) to meal or indirect stimulation.

3, There is at present no evidence to indicate, either that a high basal secretory rate is due to the existence of a raised secretory ‘‘tone”’, or that changes in tone are necessarily reflected in the basal secretory rate,

LITERATURE

1. Baskin, B. P. Handb. d. norm. u. path. Physiol., 1927, 3, 710-758; Die Aussere Sekretion der Verdauungsdriisen, Berlin, 1928, 2nd, ed., p. 190,

2. BRESTKIN, M. Proc, Surg, Soc., Leningrad, 1928 (quoted by Babkin, 1).

3. BuRLAGE, S, R. Am. J. Physiol., 1922, 60, 350-356.

4. FarreE tt, J. I. Am. J. Physiol., 1928, 85, 685-687.

5. IsHrpo, B. Biochem. Ztschr., 1922, 180, 151-153.

6. Lim, R. K.S. anp Ammon, S.E, Quart. J. Exper. Physiol., 1923, 18, 115-129.

Lim, R. K.S., Maturson, A. R. Quart. J. Exper. Physiol., 1928, 13, 361-391. AND ScHLAPP, W. 8. Lim, R.K.S, Am, J. Physiol., 1925, 69, 318-333.