FATS. 271 



form colourless and coloured blood- corpuscles, and not to produce 

 or secrete bile, for I have frequently convinced myself by obser- 

 vations on human and animal embryos, that at this period the 

 gall-bladder contains no bile. 



The blood of the portal vein, from which the bile is principally 

 formed, differs from all other blood, whether venous or arterial, by 

 its large quantity of fat, as was noticed by Simon and Schultz, and 

 has been corroborated more recently by the exact quantitative 

 analyses of Fr. Chr. Schmid,* who found that the blood of 

 the portal vein contained so much more fat than that of the 

 jugular vein, that he was led to regard this as the most 

 essential difference between these two kinds of blood. 

 Moreover he observed that the fat from the blood of the portal 

 vein was of a dark brown colour, and that it was always richer 

 in olein, and consequently more greasy, than the fat of other 

 venous blood, which is white and crystalline. When animals are 

 starved for any length of time it is well known that they rapidly 

 become emaciated ; the urine still exibits nitrogenous constituents, 

 corresponding in amount to the products of effete tissue; whilst 

 the gall-bladder is perfectly full, and the liver constantly pours 

 forth bile into the intestine, as I have convinced myself by a 

 repetition of Magendie's experiments.f The above fact seems to 

 explain the cause of the bitter taste of which persons suffering 

 from starvation very frequently complain. Whence can the liver 

 extract the materials necessary to the formation of bile ? The urine, 

 although poorer in solid constituents, always contains a consider- 

 able quantity of urea ; and the animal body contains few or no highly 

 carbonaceous substances, with the exception of fat, which we 

 here observe disappearing very rapidly, while at the same time 

 there is an abundant secretion of bile. 



In disease the diminution or increase of fat is inversely pro- 

 portional to the secretion of bile. Polycholia, which seldom occurs 

 in adults, but which in children constitutes the affection known as 

 Icterus neonatorum, is always accompanied with rapid emaciation. 

 In acute diseases, emaciation generally occurs in conjunction with 

 critical symptoms, that is to say, when the organs of excretion 

 resume their activity, and eliminate the materials that have become 

 effete ; hence the copious semi-solid faeces. In all acute or chronic 

 diseases of the liver, the fat accumulates either merely in the blood, 

 or in the blood and in the cellular tissue. The obesity observed 



* Heller's Arch. Bd. 3, S. 487-521, and Bd. 4, 8. 15-37, and S. 97-132. 

 t Journ. de Physiol. T. 8, p. 171. 



