630 OF SECRETION. 



ent upon the presence of aliment in the latter, that the Gall-bladder is almost 

 invariably found turgid in persons who have died of starvation; the secretion 

 formed at the ordinary slow rate having gradually accumulated, for want of 

 demand. This fact is important in juridical inquiries. 



835. The Bile, as already shown ( 660), has an important operation to 

 effect in the Digestive process ; that of reducing the oily matter of the food 

 to a state in which it may be taken up by the Absorbent vessels. This it 

 effects by means of its soapy character ; which, notwithstanding the doubts 

 of Chemists, seems to be proved by familiar facts. Thus, Ox-Gall is com- 

 monly employed to remove grease spots ; and the bile of the Sea-Wolf (Jlnar- 

 rhicas lupus] is ordinarily used as soap by the Icelanders. Moreover, the 

 small quantity of Cholesterine contained in healthy Bile, is certainly in a state 

 of complete solution ; the biliary soap having the same action upon it, as 

 upon the oleaginous constituents of the chyme. From the recent experiments 

 of H. Meckel, however, it appears that the Bile may perform another very 

 important office, the transformation of sugar into fatty matter. He found 

 that, when bile was mingled with grape-sugar, and allowed to remain in con- 

 tact with it for some time, a much larger quantity of fatty matter existed in 

 the mixture, than could have been present in the bile ; and that the transfor- 

 mation is much aided by heat. Thus, the amount of fat, contained in an equal 

 amount of the bile employed, having been ascertained from parallel experi- 

 ments to be from '48 to '54 grammes, the amount obtained from the mixture 

 of bile and grape-sugar, after five hours' exposure to the warmth of an incu- 

 bating machine, was "87 grammes ; and after twenty-four hours' exposure, 1*84 

 grammes.* It seems probable that this transformation may take place in the 

 Liver itself; for in animals fed upon grape-sugar, this substance has been de- 

 tected in the blood of the portal vein, but not in that of the hepatic vein. It 

 will take effect, not merely upon the Sugar introduced as such in the food, 

 but also upon the amylaceous substances, which have been converted into 

 sugar by the action of the Salivary and Pancreatic fluids ( 670). 



836. There can be no doubt, however, that the Bile is partly an excremen- 

 titious fluid ; a portion of it being destined to be at once carried out of the 

 system, by the intestinal canal, although another portion is destined to be re- 

 absorbed, for the purpose (as it would seem) of being ultimately carried off 

 by the respiratory process. The former part probably includes the whole of 

 the colouring matter ; the presence of which in the faeces is sufficiently ob- 

 vious. The latter seems usually to comprise the fatty or soapy portion ; no 

 distinct indications of which can be generally found in the faeces, unless they 

 have rapidly passed through the alimentary canal ( 662). But in particular 

 states of the system, the faeces may contain a very large quantity of bile ; the 

 presence of which almost unchanged, may be recognized in the evacuations 

 in bilious diarrhoea, and in the stools which follow mercurial purgatives. 

 Hence the Bile may be a completely excrementitious product ; and the idea 

 of the action of the Liver, as one of the great purifiers of the body from the 

 results of its decay, is not at all invalidated by the observation, that a large 

 part of its secretion is ordinarily destined for immediate re-absorption. The 

 composition of the secretion clearly indicates, that it is especially intended to 

 eliminate from the blood its superfluous Hydro-Carbon, whether this have 

 been absorbed as such from the aliment, or have been taken up by the Blood 

 as effete matter, during the course of the circulation. 



a. If more non-azoti/ed food be taken into the system, than can be got rid of by the 

 Respiratory process, and if there be not a sulliciently rapid production of Adipose tissue to 

 admit of its being deposited as Fat, it would accumulate in the Blood, unless separated by 



Mr. Pagi-l's Report, in Brit, and For. Med. Rev., July 1S4G, p. 201. 



