Notes on the Process of Digestion in Tsetse-flies

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Abstract
(1) The salivary glands of Glossina contain a powerful anticoagulin, which delays the clotting of blood of mammals, birds, reptiles and batrachians. It was found that when the salivary glands are removed from the living fly, it can still draw blood normally and may live long, but sooner or later large clots form in the narrow anterior portions of the alimentary tract, so that the fly can no longer feed and dies of starvation. The purpose of the anticoagulin is to prevent such clotting and blood coagulation in the crop.(2) The proventriculus and first third of the mesenteron are themselves inert in relation to coagulation of blood, but as removed from the normal fly they contain the anticoagulin which is derived from the salivary secretion.(3) The hinder part of the mesenteron contains a powerful coagulin, the purpose of which is to neutralise the anticoagulin and cause a rapid clotting, in order to retain the fluid meal in the proper region while draining and assimilation take place, probably also to save strain on the sphincter mesenteri and prevent the occasional loss of food through the anus.

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