ADDITIONS AND NOTES TO VOL. II. 507 



From the preceding observations it might be expected that the 

 nature of the food would exert a certain influence on the amount 

 of the hepatic secretion ; and this expectation has been thoroughly 

 confirmed by the experiments of Bidder and Schmidt, and of 

 Nasse. A flesh-diet induces a far more abundant secretion of bile 

 than vegetable, amylaceous food. Thus, for instance, Nassers dog, 

 when fed on bread and potatoes, daily secreted I7l'8 grammes of 

 bile, containing 6'252 grammes of solid matter; but when fed 

 upon flesh it secreted in the same period 208*5 grammes of bile, 

 containing 7 '06 grammes of solid matter. In admirable co-inci- 

 dence with these experiments are those instituted by Bidder and 

 Schmidt on cats, which, when fed on pure/a/, secreted no more 

 bile than if they had been completely deprived of food for the 

 same time. An exclusive fatty diet, therefore, exerts no influence 

 on the secretion of bile. In Nassers case, however, an abundant 

 addition of fat to the ordinary food of the dog occasioned a marked 

 augmentation of the biliary secretion. 



In repeated experiments both on cats and dogs, Bidder and 

 Schmidt found that, after the copious ingestion of water, the 

 quantity both of the bile and of its solid constituents was 

 increased. After water has been freely taken the bile is certainly 

 somewhat richer in water than normal bile, but with this water 

 there is at the same time secreted a larger amount of solid consti- 

 tuents than is usually eliminated by the liver. This result has 

 also been confirmed by Nasse. Hence it is not surprising that 

 slight variations are perpetually being observed in the ratio of the 

 water to the solid constituents of the bile secreted in definite times ; 

 and hence, too, it is that in the numerous tables drawn up by 

 Bidder and Schmidt, all influences on the hepatic secretion are far 

 more distinctly and precisely reflected on the amount of the solid 

 constituents than on that of the fresh aqueous bile. Nasse lays 

 special stress upon the point, that the variations which we observe 

 in the quantity of the solid constituents of the bile are chiefly 

 induced by the organic matters, while the mineral substances 

 secreted in definite times remain nearly constant. 



After large doses of carbonate of soda, Nasse observed a con- 

 siderable diminution of the secretion of bile, and especially of the 

 solid constituents. Alcohol caused an augmentation of the fluid 

 bile, but a diminution of its solid constituents. 



Finally, Nasse entirely coincides with Bidder and Schmidt, 

 that disease (namely, febrile excitement) has an extraordinary effect 

 in diminishing the quantity of the secreted bile. 



