338 DR ALISON'S OBSERVATIONS ON 



SO the Bile from the liver, likewise reabsorbed as it passes down the primse vise, 

 furnishes to the blood a pretty constant supply of matter fit for calorific combina- 

 tion with oxygen, out of the occasional ingesta. 



The proofs of this proposition, and its importance, appear from the following 

 fects, ascertained by these authors. 1. That by far the greater part of the amy- 

 laceous matter taken into the stomach, is converted into soluble matter (dextrine 

 and sugar) in the primse vise, and these must necessarily be absorbed by the 

 veins, and of course carried to the vena portae and liver. From thence a part of 

 this matt^, no doubt, will pass immediately by the venae cavse hepatica- to the 

 right side of the heart and lungs, and come immediately into contact with the 

 oxygen ; but a part, meeting a portion of effete animal matter in the venous blood 

 wiU aid in the formation of bile in this way : 



4 equivalents of starch 

 Add 1 of ammonia 



Subtract elements of choleic acid 



10 ... 10 29 



requiring only one part of oxygen to pass into 10 CO.., + 10 HO, carbonic acid 

 and water ; which accounts for the great quantity of bile secreted by herbivorous 

 animals ; and accounts likewise for the secretion of bile being chiefly from venous 

 blood, inasmuch as very little oxygen is required for its formation, and its chief 

 pabulum has been recently absorbed by the veins. In so far as bile is formed 

 from fat, it must be by help of more oxygen, and, therefore, probably from 

 arterial blood. 



2. That of the bile formed and discharged into the intestines, the greater j)art, 

 even in the herbivora, and almost the whole in the carnivora, is reabsorbed into 

 the blood, and decomposed in the process, the pure bile appearing distinctly in 

 the faeces almost exclusively in the case either of diarrhcjea, or of the operation of 

 cathartics. Wlien to these facts we add these considerations, that biliary matter 

 retained in the blood, as in one form of jaundice, acts as a poison, and that it 

 cannot be of use in the nutrition of the textures, which is provided for by the 

 albuminous contents of the blood, we can hardly doubt that it is reabsorbed into 

 the blood, only that it (or its elements) may unite with oxygen, and be thrown 

 off as carbonic acid and water, with a little urea ; and therefore, that the liver 

 is an appendage to the digestive organs, destined for the proper disposal of the 

 calorific, rather than the nutritious portions of the food, and for the necessary 

 separation of these two : and that the circulation of the matter destined to this 



