136 MEMOIR ON THE 



coat of the ftomach. The difference in the eje£ted matter 

 being now eftabliflied, and, in a manner, proved to be the 

 effect of different caufes, I fliall proceed to confider 

 the fourth and laft opinion, viz. that the black vomit is bile, 

 changed to a black colour by meeting with the feptic 

 acid in the ftomach, and inteftinal canal. The preceding 

 diffe£tions clearly prove this opinion to be erroneous, as 

 they evidently fhow, that the black flaky particles, or co- 

 louring-matter of the vomit, come from the gall-bladder ; 

 therefore, it could not receive its brown or black colour 

 from meeting with the feptic acid, fuppofed to be genera- 

 ted in the ftomach and inteftinal canal. 



TChe black vomit confidered as an allered fecret'ion from 



the liver. 



The colourihg matter of the vomit appears, from the 

 authors already quoted, to be generally traced, after death, 

 to- the gall-bladder. This pofition being incontroverti- 

 bly eftabliihed by diffeclions, the power of the liver to fe- 

 cretethat fubftance will be admitted, of courfe, as it could 

 not befecreted by the gall-bladder, or tranfmitted intotliat 

 vifcus through any other paffage, but by the hepatic duct. 

 If this view of the fubjedl be,* in any meafure, juft, it is a 

 fadt afcertained, beyond the (hadow of a doubt, that the 

 black flaky fubftance of the vomit is an altered fecretion 

 from the liver. This matter, being fecreted by the liver, 

 and depofited by the hepatic du£t in the gall-bladder, 

 in the laft hours of this difeafe, is from thence forced, 

 by the contradlions of the gall-bladder, and cyfttc du£t, 

 in conjun(Stlon with the violent adion of vomiting into the 

 ftomach. It there receives the addition of the yellow- 

 coloured fluid, which is almoft always ejedled with the 

 flaky fubftance. That this fluid is combined with the 

 flaky matter in the ftomach, and not in the gall-bladder, 



every 



