THE LIVER SECRETION OF BILE. 481 



of the excrementitious matters brought to it for elimination, is habitual in 

 some persons; and it produces a degree of indisposition to bodily or mental 

 exertion, which it is difficult to counteract. More, probably, is to be gained 

 in such cases by the regulation of the diet, especially the reduction of its 

 hydrocarbonaceous components, and by active exercise (which, by augment- 

 ing the respiration, will promote the elimination of any superfluity of this 

 kind through the lungs), than by continually inciting the liver to increased 

 functional activity, by medicines which have a special power of temporarily 

 augmenting its energy. The excrementitious character of the Biliary secre- 

 tion is very strikingly indicated by its formation during fetal life; 1 which, 

 as it can then have reference neither to the function of Digestion nor to 

 that of Respiration, must be regarded as having for its purpose to free the 

 blood of the matter which would be injurious to it. And this matter can 

 hardly arise from any other source than the "waste" of the tissues (conse- 

 quent upon the limited duration of their existence), which takes place even 

 when the life of the organism is most purely vegetative. 



394. From what components of the Blood the materials of the biliary 

 secretion are immediately derived, is a question that cannot yet be quite 

 satisfactorily answered. The close resemblance in composition between the 

 resinous acids of bile and the ordinary fats (especially olein), naturally sug- 

 gests the idea that they are drawn from the fatty matters of the blood ; an 

 opinion which was supported by Lehmaun, on the grounds first, of the 

 diminished proportion of fat contained in the Hepatic, as compared with the 

 Portal Venous blood ; secondly, of the increase in the quantity of bile ob- 

 served after rich fat food; and thirdly, of the emaciation which occurs in 

 animals as a consequence of the formation of a biliary fistula, in spite of 

 abundant supply of albuminous food. It must be acknowledged, however, 

 that there are various objections to this view, both physiological and chemical. 

 Thus it is maintained by Bidder and Schmidt, that the flow of bile is not 

 increased by a predominance of fat in the food, and that animals fed exclu- 

 sively on fat do not secrete more bile than those entirely deprived of food : 

 whilst it has been found by Nasse, that it is to the presence of a large amount 

 of albuminous compounds in the food that any great augmentation in this 

 secretion is due. 2 The increase of the secretion after each ordinary ingestion 

 of food ( 125), and its marked and progressive diminution in animals en- 

 tirely deprived of aliment (as determined by MM. Bidder and Schmidt), 

 seem to indicate that its materials may be directly derived in part from 

 albuminous materials which GO not undergo metamorphosis into tissue ; 

 whilst, on the other hand, there is every reason to believe, that the pro- 

 duction of the components of bile is a necessary part of those processes of 

 retrograde metamorphosis, by which the materials of the effete tissues are 

 removed from the system. The experiments and observations of SchiflT, s 



1 The gall-bladder begins to contain bile at about the sixth month of intrauterine 

 life, and it has been shown by Simon and French?, that the meconium which is con- 

 tained in the intestinal canal at birth, is chiefly composed of inspissated bile; and 

 Kiihne (Physiol. Chemie, 1868, p. 103), after referring to the results of various inves- 

 tigations, observes that the Bile undergoes the same changes in the intestines as when 

 boiled with acids or alkalies, or when allowed to putrefy. These changes commence 

 in the lower part of the ileutn, and are completed in the caecum and colon. Glyco- 

 cholic acid, which is decomposed with difficulty, may frequently be found in the 

 faeces of animals, in which it constitutes the chief biliary acid, whilst in the f;eces of 

 Carnivora, whose bile is principally composed of Taurocliolic acid, only cholalic acid 

 appears. Accoraing to Bischoff, man discharges about 50 grains of the biliary acids 

 by the faeces per diem, whilst Voit's estimates give 170 grains as the quantity daily 

 formed by the liver ; 120 grains must therefore be reabsorbed or otherwise disposed of. 



2 Sec; Prof. Lehmann's Physiologischen Chemie, 2d edit , Bd. ii, pp. 64-66. 



3 Pfliiger's Archiv, 1870, p. 598. 



