478 OP SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 



a close relation between Cholepyrrhin, or Bilirubin, and the coloring matter 

 of the Urine obtained by Jaffe, 1 and named by him Urobilin, and with the 

 coloring matter of the faeces obtained by Vaulair and Masius. 2 Feltz and 

 Hitter 3 and Tarchanoff* have shown that if the coloring matters of the Bile 

 or of the Blood are directly injected into the Blood, they are rapidly excreted 

 in a more or less modified condition by the Urine. These experiments rather 

 tend to show that the biliary coloring matters are not formed exclusively in 

 and by the Liver, but rather that they are in part performed in the Blood, 

 so quickly is their elimination from the body effected. It is remarkable 

 that, notwithstanding the comparatively minute proportion in which choles- 

 terin and coloring matters exist in ordinary bile, cholesteriu should usually 

 be the principal ingredient of the biliary concretions which are frequently 

 found in the gall-bladder and bile-ducts ; and that the bile-pigment with 

 choloidinic acid and a calcareous base should also occasionally accumulate, 

 so as to form solid masses which consist of little else. The Spectrum of Bile 

 in man and various animals has been investigated by Dr. Dalton. 5 He states 

 that it is very short, the light being totally absorbed at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the refrangible end, and that it terminates suddenly. It presents, 

 as is shown in the accompanying diagram from his paper, an absorption- 



FIG. 173. 



Spectrum of green bile. 



band in the red at the situation of the line C, whi'ch appears to be due to the 

 green rather than the red coloring matter of the bile. 6 And lastly, it pre- 

 sents as a rule a remarkable diminution in quality of the orange and red 

 colors. Both Dalton and Schenk 7 obtained the spectrum (Fig. 174) from 

 the purple fluid, resulting from the action of Pettenkofer's test on solutions 

 of the taurocholate and glycocholate of Soda, exhibiting two wide and dark 

 absorption-bands, one at E, extending from D 50 E, to E 25 F ; the other 

 at F, from E 60 F, to F 15 G, the spectrum terminating gradually about 

 the line G. V. Wittich, in a case of biliary fistula in the human subject, 

 found that the fresh bile contained a ferment capable of converting starch 

 into sugar. 8 



392. We have now to inquire into the conditions under which the Secretion 

 of Bile takes place; and one of the most important of these, is the supply of 



1 Jaffc, Virchow's Arehiv, Bd. xlvii. 



1 Yanlair and Masius, Centralulatt f. d. Mod. Wiss , 1871, p. 369. 



3 Felt/, and Kilter, Robin's Journal de ('Anatomic. 1875, p. 1G2. 



4 Taivhanoir, PU user's Arehiv, 1874, Bd. ix, p. 329. 

 6 New York Medical Journal, June, 1874. 



6 On Vierordt's system of notation, in which the eight principal linos of the solar 

 spectrum arc taken as fixed points. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and II, and the space- be- 

 tween these considered as divided into 100 equal parts, the exact position of the bund 

 was in one case from B 20 C to C 10 D, and in another from B 13 C to C 18 D. 



7 Anatom. Pliysiol. Unters., Wien, 1873. 



8 Piliiger's Arehiv, 1872, Bd. vi, p. 181. Rankc, Physiology, 1875, p. 287: 



