OBSERVATIONS ON A DOG- WITH BILIARY FISTULA. 373 



in an animal with the biliary passages intact, the proportion 

 was 32-79 parts per 1,000.* 



In animals operated upon in this way, there is frequently 

 a great distaste for fatty articles of food. In our own obser- 

 vation, the dog refused fat meat even when very hungry and 

 when lean meat was taken with great avidity. 



Experiments concerning the influence of the bile upon the 

 absorption of fats have resulted in hardly any thing definite. 

 We only know the fact that when the bile is diverted from 

 the intestine, the proportion of fat in the chyle is greatly 

 reduced, and a large proportion of the fat taken with the 

 food passes through the intestine and is found in the -faeces. 



The action of the bile in exciting muscular contraction, 

 particularly in the smooth muscular fibres, is pretty well es- 

 tablished. It has been shown by Schiff that this fluid acts 

 upon the muscular fibres situated in the substance of the in- 

 testinal villi, causing them to contract, and, according to his 

 view, assisting in the absorption of chyle by emptying the 

 lacteals of the villi. 3 The whole subject, however, of the 

 absorption of fats is exceedingly difficult of investigation ; 

 and our knowledge of it has not been sensibly advanced by 

 the experiments upon the influence exerted by the bile. 



Notwithstanding the obscurity in which this subject is 

 involved, it is certain that the progressive emaciation, loss 

 of strength, and final death of animals deprived of the 

 action of the bile in the intestine is due to defective diges- 

 tion and assimilation. In spite of the great quantities of 

 food taken by these animals, the phenomena which precede 

 the fatal result are simply those of starvation. It may be 

 that the biliary salts are absorbed by the blood and are 

 necessary to proper assimilation; but there is no experi- 

 mental basis for this supposition, and it is impossible to dis- 

 cover these salts in the blood of the portal system by the or- 

 dinary tests. It is more probable that the biliary salts influ- 



1 Op. cit. y p. 227. 



2 LOXGET, Traite de Physiologic, Paris, 18G1, tome i., p. 256. 



