ABSORPTION AND ASSIMILATION 93 



carried to the liver, which either destroys the poisons or 

 sends them back to the intestine along with the bile. In 

 this way the liver is a continual protection to the body. 



129. Summary of the work of the liver. The liver serves 

 as the regulator of the body. The bile which it produces is to the 

 intestine what the acid is to the stomach. It aids the action of the 

 digestive ferments and hinders other forms of fermentation. It smooths 

 the passage of food down the intestine, and aids diffusion into the blood 

 tubes. The liver changes digested albumin and sugar and fits them for 

 use in the blood, and intercepts poisons which may be circulating in the 

 blood. It's work goes on constantly, and upon its perfect action depends 

 the well-being of the body. 



130. Biliousness. If the liver acts imperfectly, a part 

 of the peptone remains unchanged; other poisons, too, 

 brought from the intestine by the blood are not destroyed ; 

 and the glucose is not properly assimilated and oxidized. 

 A coated tongue, headache, loss of appetite, and an uncon- 

 querable feeling of dullness follow, and are symptoms of 

 what is known as biliousness. 



In fevers there is a poisoning of the body by the cause 

 of the disease. As the liver is one of the principal organs 

 which remove poisons from the blood, it may soon be able 

 to get rid of them, and thus cure the fever. But often the 

 task is too great for it, and then all the symptoms of a 

 severe bilious attack are added. 



131. Liver medicines. Certain drugs, like mercury or podo- 

 phyllin, have the power to increase the action of the liver. In proper 

 doses they cause a great outpouring of bile which carries with it the 

 poisons of the body. The drugs also cause the liver cells to assimilate 

 the food more perfectly. Thus nature is assisted by the drugs and the 

 biliousness is soon overcome. 



132. Intestinal indigestion. When the stomach is over- 

 worked and acts imperfectly, its work is thrown upon the 

 intestine. Digestion there is imperfectly accomplished, and 



