254 EXCRETION. 



The experiments of M. Ore are very curious and in- 

 structive. After having repeatedly made the experiment of 

 applying a tight ligature to the portal vein, producing thereby 

 very grave sympt6ms and death so speedily that the effects 

 upon the secretion of bile could not be satisfactorily ob- 

 served, he modified his operations so as to effect a gradual 

 obliteration of the vein. This he accomplished by simply 

 applying a loose ligature, and tightening it from time to 

 time until it came away. By this mode of procedure he suc- 

 ceeded in observing the secretion of bile six days or more 

 after the application of the ligature ; and, on killing the 

 animals, he found the portal vein entirely obliterated and 

 no communicating branches by which the blood could get 

 from the portal system to the liver. From these observa- 

 tions it is concluded that the bile is secreted from the blood 

 of the hepatic artery. 



In support of this view, several instances of obliteration 

 of the portal vein in the human subject are cited in works 

 upon physiology. In a note to the communication of Ore 

 in the Comptes rendus, Andral reports the case of a patient 

 that died of dropsy, and on post-mortem examination the 

 portal vein was found obliterated. In this instance the gall- 

 bladder was found full of bile. 1 In addition, instances in 

 which the portal vein emptied into the vena cava have been 

 reported, 2 and in none was there any deficiency in the secre- 

 tion of bile. 



If the experiments upon the effects of tying the hepatic 

 artery, and the observations of instances of obliteration of 

 the portal vein and of congenital malformation, in which the 

 portal vein does not go to the liver, be equally reliable, there 



1 Comptes rendus, Paris, 1856, tome xliii., p. 46*7. 



2 ABERNETHT, Account of two Instances of Uncommon Formation, in the Viscera 

 of the Human Body, Philosophical Transactions, London, 1793, p. 59. 



LAWRENCE, Account of a Child born without a Brain, which lived four 



Days ; with a sketch of the principal deviations from the ordinary Formation of the 

 Body ; Remarks on their Production, and a view of some Physiological Inferences to 

 which they lead. Medico- Chirurgical Transactions, London, 1814, vol. v., p. 174. 



