480 OF SECRETION AND EXCRETION. 



tion of blood), there seems no reason why arterial blood should not furnish 

 its materials as abundantly (or nearly so) as venous. The real explanation 

 of the peculiar relation of the Liver to the Venous circulation, is probably 

 to be found in the action of the organ upon the matters newly absorbed into 

 the circulation from the alimentary canal. That this action is not only as- 

 similative, as already shown (chap, vi, sect. 3), but is also to a certain ex- 

 tent depurative, appears from the fact that the liver tends to remove from 

 the blood, and to store up in its own substance, certain foreign matters of an 

 injurious kiud, such as copper and arsenic, which have found their way 

 into the tributaries of the portal system. This seems also to be the case with 

 respect to pus, which, when taken up from ulcers in the intestinal walls, is 

 stopped in the liver, and not unfrequently gives rise to abscesses in its sub- 

 stance. 1 



393. There is strong reason for believing that the chief constituents of 

 the Bile are elaborated in the liver itself and are not preformed in the blood, 

 since although the tests for biliary acids are far more delicate than those em- 

 ployed for the detection of urea, no trace has been discovered of them in the 

 blood of animals whose livers have been extirpated, though it might be ex- 

 pected, that if like the components of the urinary secretion, they pre-exist 

 in the circulating current, and are merely eliminated from it by the action 

 of the liver, they would accumulate in it when that elimination is checked 

 by the removal of the secreting organ. Some of the constituents of this very 

 complex secretion may undoubtedly be found in other organs or fluids of the 

 body, thus cholesterin is found in the blood, lymph, most glands, and abun- 

 dantly in the brain. Taurin is a constant constituent of the lungs and mus- 

 cles of many animals, and Taurocholic acid is stated by Cloez and Vulpian 

 to exist in the suprarenal capsules. Glycocoll can easily be obtained from 

 hippuric acid, which is constantly present in the urine; and even the color- 

 ing matters bilirubin and biliverdin occur normally in the placenta of the 

 dog. Still there can be little doubt that the pigmentary substances and the 

 conjugated tauro- and glycocholic acids are formed in the liver itself, and 

 that they are produced at the expense of substances of an excrementitious 

 character, whose retention in the circulating current would be injurious; this 

 being strikingly demonstrated by the disturbance of the functions generally, 

 and especially of those of the Nervous system, which is consequent upon the 

 suspension of the secreting process. When the suppression is complete, the 

 powers of the system are speedily lowered (almost as by a narcotic poison), 

 the patient suddenly becomes jaundiced, and death rapidly supervenes. 3 

 When then secretion is diminished, but not suspended, the same symptoms 

 present themselves in a less aggravated form. It is probable that much of 

 the disorder in the functions of the brain, and it has been experimentally 

 shown by Rdhrig that the well-marked diminution of the frequency of the 

 beats of the heart which so constantly accompanies deranged action of the 

 digestive system, and especially jaundice, are due to the less severe opera- 

 tion of the same cause, namely, the partial retention within the blood of 

 certain constituents of the bile, which should have been eliminated from 

 the circulating fluid. Such an abnormal accumulation, which may depend 

 either on a deficiency in the functional activity of the liver, or on an excess 



1 Sec Dr. G. Budd's Treatise on Disease of the Liver, 2d edit., chap, ii, sect. 1. 



2 Sec Prof. Alison in Edin. Mod. and Surg. Journ., vol. xliv ; ami Dr. Bndd, op. 

 cit. , chap. iii. Austin Flint (Physiology of Man, vol. iii, p. 288 et seq.) has sn Bested 

 that it is the cholesterin which acts as the poisonous agent, and has proposed the term 

 "cholesternemia" for this form of blood-poisoning; but the observations of Feltz and 

 Kilter (Robin's Journal do 1'Aiiatornic, 1875, p. 171) on the e fleets of the injection of 

 cholesterin are opposed to Dr. Flint's view. 



