MECHANISM OF THE SECRETION OF BILE. 253 



the liver, one for the secretion of bile and the other for the 

 production of sugar, as still unsettled. There is no evi- 

 dence, indeed, that the bile is secreted anywhere but in the 

 hepatic lobules. 



Secretion of Bile from Venous or Arterial Blood. 

 Xumerous experiments have been made with the. view of 

 determining whether the bile be secreted from the blood 

 brought to the liver by the portal vein, or from the blood of 

 the hepatic artery. The immense quantity of blood distrib- 

 uted in the liver by the portal vein led first to the opinion 

 that the impurities were separated from this blood to form 

 the bile, and that the hepatic artery had little or nothing to 

 do with the secretion. This, indeed, was the view adopted 

 by Glisson, 1 one of the earliest writers on the anatomy and 

 functions of the liver. But since Bernard discovered the 

 glycogenic function of the liver, this subject has assumed 

 additional importance ; and it becomes a question whether 

 the materials for the secretion of bile may not be furnished 

 by one vessel (the hepatic artery), while the other (the portal 

 vein) is specially concerned in the formation of glycogenic 

 matter. This theoretical view, however, is not carried out 

 by well-established anatomical facts or by physiological ex- 

 periments. It is not yet possible to separate the liver ana- 

 tomically into two organs, one for the secretion of bile and 

 the other for the production of sugar. It seems certain, also, 

 from numerous experiments, 3 that bile may be secreted from 

 the blood of the portal vein after a ligature has been applied 

 to the hepatic artery ; and it is equally certain, from the re- 

 cent experiments of Ore, 8 that, if the portal vein be obliter- 

 ated so gradually that the animal does not die from the op- 

 eration, bile is secreted from the blood of the hepatic artery. 



1 GLISSOXIUS, Anatomia Hepatis, London, 1654, p. 383. 



2 LOXGET, Traite de physiologic, Paris, 1869, tome ii., p. 305. 



3 ORE, Influence de V obliteration de la veine porte *ur la secretion de la bile. 

 Comptesrendus, Paris, 1856, tome xliii., p. 463. 



