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CHAP. IV.~The liver. 



1. THE function of the liver is said to consist in the 

 secretion of bile. Is this the only way in which it is related with 

 the animal economy? As the function of this viscus has never been 

 investigated with minuteness, we are destitute of the facts which 

 would enable us to decide satisfactorily upon this question. It is, 

 however, to be presumed that the separation of bile from the blood 

 in some way or other makes a part of the general concurrence of 

 processes for the maintenance of life and health; and that in this 

 way the function of the liver may not be without its use, inde- 

 pendently of any further purposes to which its product might be 

 applied. 



2. I am not aware that we possess any direct facts which 

 prove a relation with the animal economy of the kind just sug- 

 gested. And indeed it seems almost impossible to attain such facts; 

 for the only mode of ascertaining that the separation of bile from 

 blood is salutary, or fulfils an important end, is by witnessing the 

 event of the suspension of this secretion: and here we have to dis- 

 criminate in the subsequent derangement (if any) whether such de- 

 rangement is to be imputed in part, or wholly, to the presence of 

 bile in the blood, or the want of it in the intestines; or, if to both 

 these causes, the share is to be decided which is attributable 

 to each. 



3. But that the mere separation of bile from the blood con- 

 tributes towards the well-being of the animal is to be presumed 

 from the analogy of this, to the secretions, which are also excreted, 

 serving no ulterior purpose, and therefore not liable to the confusion 

 above noticed ; as in the case of the urinary secretion, the suspen- 

 sion of which is known to be productive of disease, and its restora- 

 tion to be followed by a return to health. The use of the mere 

 separation of bile from the blood is rather to be supposed upon this 

 ground than from the phenomena of jaundice, which are liable to 

 happen in two ways, between which we have no unequivocal criterion 

 for the purpose of discrimination. To which may be added, that 

 supposing the disordered functions of distant seats, which usually 

 take place in jaundice, to be clearly imputable to the presence of 

 bile in the sanguiferous system, this would prove only that bile 



