FUNCTIONS OF THE BILE. 155 



action, of the disinfection of the intestinal contents, of the excitement 

 of the intestinal villi, of the precipitation of the proteid bodies, and so 

 on. Are all these correct, however ? In how far is the one essential 

 and the other not ? To such questions you will find no satisfactory 

 answer. Further, the academic teacher will have little or nothing 

 clear and incontestable to demonstrate concerning the bile, a fluid the 

 appearance and composition of which are so special. And yet we 

 cannot doubt that the bile is necessary for digestion, that it plays an 

 important rule in this process, otherwise it would not be poured into the 

 intestine at such a remarkable situation, namely, where the acid peptic 

 gives place to the alkaline pancreatic digestion. 



But how are we to set about determining what the digestive 

 functions of the bile are ? One of the most direct ways consists in 

 examining how much and what kind of bile is poured into the digestive 

 canal. It is remarkable that this method has never been correctly 

 applied, although numbers of physiologists have worked at the subject. 

 The bile has been collected from the most widely different animals, both 

 during digestion as well as in fasting, but always by means of a fistula 

 leading into the gall-bladder, a receptacle where the bile (continuously 

 formed by the liver) is temporarily stored up till required for use. 

 Experiments performed on dogs with an artificial opening into the 

 common bile duct differ little from the foregoing, since, although the 

 bile in the first instance enters the duct, it is conducted from thence 

 into the gall-bladder. The experiments have led the authors to very 

 different conclusions. In all cases, the bile continuously flowed from 

 the gall-bladder whether the dog had been fasting or fed. And this is 

 easy to understand, since the formation of bile in the liver and its 

 employment during digestion are naturally two different things. It 

 is because of this that a special reservoir is provided for it in the 

 shape of the gall-bladder. Consequently, in order to determine what 

 the function of the bile during digestion is, one must observe how it 

 enters the alimentary canal and not how it accumulates in the gall- 

 bladder. It was on these lines that we proceeded, after deviating the 

 natural orifice of the bile duct (with a piece of the surrounding mucous 

 membrane) towards the exterior.* A study of the results showed that 

 the entry of bile into the intestine is regulated by the same laws 

 that govern the flow of the other digestive juices. (Experiments of 



' The operation is not an easy one. After some preliminary trials we adopted 

 the following procedure. In the first instance the orifice of the duet, with a piece 

 of the surrounding mucous membrane, was cut out of the intestine and transplanted 

 upon its serous coat, where it was fastened with sutures. This done, the loop 

 of intestine at the point in question was stitched into the abdominal wound, 

 it healed. See Fig. 18 (a, b, r,). 



