EXCRETORY FUNCTION OF THE LIVER. 289 



in the brain. Anaesthetics, we know, have a peculiar and 

 special action on the brain, but do not interfere with the 

 functions of vegetative life, such as secretion or excretion ; 

 and, we may suppose, would not interfere with the depurative 

 function of the liver. It is fortunate that this is the case, 

 for the operation of taking blood from the abdominal ves- 

 sels is immensely increased in difficulty by the struggles of 

 an animal that is not under the influence of an anaesthetic. 



With the view of settling the question of the disappear- 

 ance of a portion of the cholesterine of the blood in its 

 passage through the liver, by an accurate quantitative analy- 

 sis, we repeated the operation for drawing blood from the 

 vessels which go into, and emerge from the liver. In the 

 first trial the blood was drawn so unsatisfactorily, and the 

 operation was so prolonged, that it was not thought worth 

 while to complete the analysis, and the experiment was 

 abandoned. In the following one we were more successful. 



Experiment II. A good-sized bitch" (pregnant) was 

 brought completely under the influence of ether, the abdo- 

 men laid freely open, and blood drawn, first from the hepatic 

 vein, and next from the portal vein. The taking of the 

 blood was entirely satisfactory, the operation being done 

 rapidly, and the blood collected without any admixture. A 

 specimen of blood was then taken from the carotid, to repre- 

 sent the blood from the hepatic artery. 



The three specimens of blood were then examined in the 

 usual way for cholesterine, with the following results : 



Blood. Cholesterine. Cholesterine per 



grains. grains. 1,000 pts. 



Arterial blood 159-537 0'200 1-257 



Portal vein 168-257 0*170 1-009 



Hepatic vein 79*848 0*077 0'964 



Percentage of loss in arterial blood in its passage through the liver... . 23'309 

 Do. do. the blood of the portal vein 4*460 



This experiment proves positively, what there was good 

 ground for supposing from Experiment I., that cholesterine 

 19 



