A. Luber (Salzburg, 1885)
and G. Wartenberg (Berlin, 1897). Full information will be found in C.
Krumbacher's _Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur_, p. 827 (2nd
ed., 1897); see also G. Schlumberger, _L'Epopee Byzantine a la fin du
dixieme siecle_ (1897).

DIGEST, a term used generally of any digested or carefully arranged
collection or compendium of written matter, but more particularly in law
of a compilation in condensed form of a body of law digested in a
systematical method; e.g. the Digest (_Digesta_) or Pandects ([Greek:
Pandektai]) of Justinian, a collection of extracts from the earlier
jurists compiled by order of the emperor Justinian. The word is also
given to the compilations of the main points (marginal or hand-notes) of
decided cases, usually arranged in alphabetical and subject order, and
published under such titles as "Common Law Digest," "Annual Digest," &c.

DIGESTIVE ORGANS (PATHOLOGY). Several facts of importance have to be
borne in mind for a proper appreciation of the pathology of the organs
concerned in digestive processes (for the anatomy see ALIMENTARY CANAL
and allied articles). In the first place, more than all other systems,
the digestive comprises greater range of structure and exhibits wider
diversity of function within its domain. Each separate structure and
each different function presents special pathological signs and
symptoms. Again, the duties imposed upon the system have to be performed
notwithstanding constant variations in the work set them. The crude
articles of diet offered them vary immensely in nature, bulk and
utility, from which they must elaborate simple food-elements for
absorption, incorporate them after absorption into complex organic
substances properly designed to supply the constant needs of cellular
activity, of growth and repair, and fitly harmonized to fulfil the many
requirements of very divergent processes and functions. Any form of
unphysiological diet, each failure to cater for the wants of any special
tissue engaged in, or of any processes of, metabolism, carry with them
pathological signs. Perhaps in greater degree than elsewhere are the
individual sections of the digestive system dependent upon, and closely
correlated with, one another. The lungs can only yield oxygen to the
blood when the oxygen is uncombined; no compounds are of use. The
digestive organs have to deal with an enormous variety of compound
bodies, from which to obtain