SOME ECONOMICS OF NATURE. 679 



for the arrival of this important part of its commissariat, the body 

 receives such food-elements soon after digestion begins. The fats, 

 starches, and sugars are, on the contrary, passed onward to be di- 

 gested in the intestine. They become available for nutrition only 

 after several hours of digestive work. The principle of " small prof- 

 its and quick returns" itself an economical and commercially satis- 

 factory mode of doing business is illustrated in the digestive trans- 

 actions of the body. That which is urgently required for the frame 

 is quickly supplied, while the (in one sense) less important foods are 

 left for later absorption. 



In this economical work the liver plays an important part. Long 

 ago in physiological history that organ was regarded simply as a bile- 

 making machine. The bile, thrown upon the food just after it leaves 

 the stomach, was regarded as an all-important digestive fluid. To-day 

 we have entered upon entirely new ideas of the* liver's work. As Dr. 

 Brunton has aptly put it, the liver is no more to be regarded as a mere 

 bile-maker than the sole use of an Atlantic liner is to be found in the 

 manufacture and display of the water-jets which issue from the sides 

 of the ship as the waste products of her engine-work. The liver is 

 really a physiological constable placed at the entrance of the blood- 

 circulation. Into it are swept digested matters. These are further 

 elaborated and changed so as perfectly to fit them for entrance into 

 the blood. When the functions of the liver are suppressed or rendered 

 inactive, elements of deleterious kind are apparently allowed to enter 

 the circulation, and thus produce all the symptoms of the body poison- 

 ing itself. This being so, we begin to see that the bile is really a mere 

 by-result of the liver's work, as the condensed water of the steamer is 

 the consequence of the real function of the vessel. Bile is a waste 

 product, and as such it is discharged into the intestine and thus ex- 

 creted. 



But natural economics rule life's actions here as elsewhere. For 

 the apparently useless bile, Nature finds a use. It is discharged upon 

 the food, and mingles with the half-digested nutriment. It has come 

 to exercise a digestive or dissolving action upon fats, a function aptly 

 illustrated by the household use of the " ox-gall " to remove grease- 

 stains in the house-cleaning periods of human existence. Moreover, 

 the bile would appear to aid in promoting the muscular contractions 

 of the intestine, and in thus expediting digestive action. It may pos- 

 sess other duties still ; but enough has been said to show that the 

 economy which rules living functions is probably nowhere better illus- 

 trated than in the utilization of bile, as a waste product, in the normal 

 discharge of the digestive act. 



Turning, lastly, to the nervous system and its work, we may find 

 exemplified equally manifest phases of economical action. When we 

 reflect upon the fact that higher life is a tremendously complex mat- 

 ter in its nervous and mental phases alone, we may well be tempted to 



