Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/46

 36 PANCREATINE PANDANUS cretion is poured in before the bile, though the ducts are so near together that no physiological conclusions can be drawn as to their separate actions ; the greatest separation is probably in the ostrich, in which the bile duct opens close to the pylorus and the pancreatic duct 3 ft. lower down; it is generally whitish red, large, elongated, and usually with two lobes. In mammals it differs from that of man chiefly in color and in its more or less division into lobes ; in rodents, and especially in the rat, it is spread out in an arborescent manner; in the rabbit the duct enters the intestine from 9 to 13 in. from the pylorus, affording special facilities for studying its secretion, since in this animal it has been found that the chyle does not make its appearance in the intestine or the lacteals until the food has passed the orifice of the pancreatic duct ; in other species, where this duct opens into the intestine higher up, the chyle is also found at a higher level. The pancreas is often called sweetbread in the calf, but this term more properly belongs to the thymus gland. PANCREATINE, a name given to various prep- arations representing the activity of the pan- creatic juice, and containing its peculiar fer- ment in greater or less purity. The processes by which pancreatine is formed are not offi- cinal, and some of them are secret. A gly- cerine extract may be made, and it is said that pancreatine may be prepared by a process sim- ilar to that employed for pepsin. (See PEP- SIN.) The pancreas itself chopped up with meat makes a good digestive for certain pur- poses. Pancreatine digests albuminoid mate- rials, and assists in transforming starch into sugar. Its peculiar function however is the digestion of fat, which it forms into a fine and permanent emulsion capable of being ab- sorbed. It possesses the special advantage over pepsin, that it does not require an acid me- dium for its action, but digests in an alkaline, neutral, or even acid fluid, although the pan- creatic juice itself is alkaline. Pancreatine has been somewhat used in medical practice, especially with fatty articles of food or medi- cine. It may be given with cod-liver oil, and may be used in the wasting diseases of chil- dren. The fresh pancreas chopped fine with meat has been recommended as a highly di- gestible and consequently absorbable material for injection into the rectum when it is neces- sary to sustain life in this way. Pancreatine is sometimes combined with pepsin. Mixed with cream it forms an emulsion, which has been used as a substitute for cod-liver oil. PANCSOVA, a fortified market town of S. Hungary, in the late Military Frontier, near the mouth of the Temes in the Danube, 67 in. S. S. W. of Temesvar; pop. in 1870, 13,408. It has Roman Catholic and Greek churches, and several schools of a high grade. There are extensive manufactories of beet sugar. It is a station of the Danube steam packet line, and has an active trade. Here, on July 30, 1739, the Austrians under Field Marshal Wallis gained a great victory over the Turks ; and on Jan. 2, 1849, the Austrian general Meyerhofer defeated the Hungarians under Gen. Kiss. PANDA, a carnivorous plantigrade mammal, of the genus ailurus (F. Cuv.), which seems to connect the bears with the civets ; by some au- thors it is placed with the civets. The teeth resemble those of the bears ; the molars f if, or perhaps |c , a single unicuspidate false molar on each side above, the others tuberculate, and two tuberculate on each side below; the ca- nines are nearly straight ; the ears rounded and small; claws curved and semi-retractile; tail thick at the base and bushy ; feet five-toed, and the soles covered with thick fur. The only Panda (Ailurus fulgens). species described is the A. fulgens (F. Cuv.), inhabiting the snowy regions of Nepaul ; it is about the size of a large cat, with full and soft fur ; the color above is chestnut brown, bright- est on the shoulders, with throat, belly, and legs black ; head whitish, with a reddish brown spot under the eyes; tail like a lady's boa, banded with red and yellow ; it is rather an elegant animal.' It is found in the neighbor- hood of rivers and mountain streams, living much on trees, and feeding on small birds and mammals ; it is called wall from its cry. PANDANUS (Malayan, pan-dang), the generic name of the screw pines, so called not because of their resemblance to the pines proper, but from the leaves, which are arranged spirally, somewhat like those of the pineapple. The genus is the principal one of the order panda- nacea, which as at present restricted consists of only three genera of arborescent plants, with simple or branched stems and simple leaves arranged in three very close spirals ; the flow- ers are dioecious, without calyx or corolla, and arranged very compactly upon a spadix; the fruit consists of numerous fibrous drupes close- ly crowded and cohering. The trunks in this family are supported by strong adventitious roots, and appear as if set upon a cone of props. The screw pines are natives of the East, espe- cially the islands of the Indian archipelago, abounding along the banks of rivers and the littoral marshes, often occupying large tracts to the exclusion of other vegetation. There are 30 or more species, some being 20 or 30 ft. high, but the majority do not exceed 10 or 15 ft. One of the finest is pandanus cande-