On the Formation of Fat in the Intestines of Living Animals

T HE investigation of the digestive organs of different animals, in which I have been engaged for many years, has led me imperceptibly into an enquiry respecting the particular uses of the lower portion of the intestines in birds and quadrupeds. The first thing that attracted my notice more particularly to this subject, was finding that in all animals, whose stomachs are made up of a great variety of parts for the purpose of economizing the food, the colon has a greater extent of surface, and the course of the canal is so disposed, that its contents must be a long time in their passage through it. This circumstance led me to believe that the food, after the chyle is formed and separated from it, undergoes in the lower intestines some changes, by which a secondary kind of nourishment is extracted from it.