THE FRONTIERS OF MEDICINE 



In their studies of the liver, scientists have developed 

 methods for determining whether or not the liver is 

 functioning properly. These involve injection into the 

 body of a dye substance which the liver picks up and ex- 

 cretes. If the liver is functioning capably in the destruction 

 of toxic substances, a larger amount of the dye will be 

 eliminated than when it fails to function so efficiently. 

 Since the number of toxic substances which may attack 

 the human body is considerable, including germs, foreign 

 proteins, and other poisons, the task of the liver in re- 

 moving noxious compounds is one of the most important 

 of the physiological functions. 



So far as the gall bladder is concerned, extensive experi- 

 mentation has already shown that it is quite possible for a 

 person to get along fairly well without the organ. Many 

 animals do not have a gall bladder, just as many animals 

 do not have an appendix. The gall bladder appears simply 

 to concentrate the bile by removing water from it. 



The knowledge of this organ already possessed by scien- 

 tific medicine has been of great value in saving human life, 

 since a diseased gall bladder, or one that does not function 

 properly, can be removed, and the person concerned saved 

 from death by intoxication, or by infection of the distended 

 organ, or indeed by rupture of the gall bladder itself. 

 There are instances in which the gall bladder becomes 

 filled with stones which may have, as their centres, germs 

 that have gotten into the gall bladder and have been 

 surrounded by concentrated salts. Such stones may block 

 the passage from the gall bladder into the intestines, as 

 a result of which the gall bladder becomes distended, and 

 the person suffers great pain. 



The intimate connection between the gall bladder, the 

 liver, and the organs of digestion, brings about many 

 complications; and a diagnosis as to whether or not a 

 person is suffering from gall bladder inflammation, or 



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