MAI T.. K 



BILE. 



plant U a native of Jamaica, on the bank* of riven. It ha* whit 

 flower*, not unlike thooe of Datura .Stramonium, which come out 

 before the leaves. The wood U of a green or yellow colour, and in 

 sometimes brought into the market under the name of ebony. It ia 

 amid to be an antidote to the poison of Manchineel. 



B. Ckiea u a climbing plant, and ha abruptly-hipinnate leaves; 

 conjugate elliptic-ovate, acuminate, deeply-cordate, glabrou leaflet* ; 

 axillary pendulous panicles. It grows on the banks of the OrijMOa 

 A red matter is extracted from it wood by the Indians, with which 

 they paint their bodies. It is called Chica, and has been used in this 

 country as a dye. 



B. ailiacea has tetragonal branches, conjugate leaves, coriaceous ellip- 

 tic leaflets, simple tendrils, axillary 5-flowered peduncles, a 6-toothed 

 calyx. It is a native of Guyana and the West Indies. It has large 

 white flowers, and U distinguished from all the other species by its 

 peculiar garlic odour ; hence the French name Liane a 1' Ail. 



(Don, Gardener'! Dictionary; De Candolle, Prodromut ; Burnett's 

 Outlinrt; Cydopadia of Plantt.) 



BIGNONLVCE.AS, Bignoniadt, the Bignonia Tribe, are Monopeta- 

 lous Dicotyledonous plants, with irregular flowers, a pod-like fruit, 

 winged seeds without albumen, and usually a climbing habit. They 

 are mostly shrubs, inhabiting the hotter parts of Asia, Africa, and 

 America, and unknown in Europe except in a cultivated state ; some 

 of them are trees of considerable size. They generally are remarkable 

 for the large size and rich or delicate colouring of their trumpet-shaped 

 flowers. No sensible properties of much importance have been recog- 

 nised among them. Several are valuable for their timber, which pos- 

 nriucin extreme hardness. According to Lindley the number of genera 

 in this order U 44, and the species 450. They are allied to Generator 

 and Cretcentiacta. [BrosoxiA ; EcCREMOCABFUS ; CATALPA; TECOMA; 

 JACABANDA.] 



ItiffnoniacfO' ftigntniia Irrf (flora. 

 1, A corolla "lit op*n ; 1, a cup-ihaprd dink, out of which the ovary often 

 irrowii, together with the niylc and Btigma ; 3, a young nvary ; 4, a rii>c pod 

 5, a wed ; 6, an embryo extracted from the Integument* of the wed. 



IlIKIl, or I'.ISII, is the name given amongst the Hindoos to a mas 

 powerful and destructive vegetable poison. l>r. Wallich refers tli 

 phut to the Aconitumfcrox. [AcoMTUU.] It is also called Vish, Visha, 

 or Ataviaha. 



BILBERRY, a berry-bearing shrub, found on the moors of mos 

 countries in Europe, f VACCISIUM. ] 



BILE, an animal fluid of a greenish colour, viscid consistence 

 and bitter taste. 



The organ by which the bile is secreted is the liver. The liver i 

 dijitinguished by two peculiarities : first, it is the largest gland in th 

 body ; and secondly, it is provided with two distinct nets of veins 

 The veins that receive the blood from the viscera of the abdomen 

 that ix, from the organs more immediately concerned in the process o 



igestion, unite together into a large trunk named the vena portte. This 



ein penetrates into the substance of the liver, and ramifies through 



t in the manner of an artery; at the same time the liver receives 



large quantity of arterial blood by the hepatic artery. [ Li VKK. J The 



ultimate branches of the vena porttc terminate partly in a set of 



easels termed the hepatic ducts, which contain the l.ilr. and partly 



in a set of vessels termed the hepatic veins, by which a large portion 



if the blood of the vena portae is transmitted by the ordinary course 



if the circulation into the vena cava, the great vein that returns the 



ilood from all parts of the body to the right side of the heart. 



CIRCULATION OF THB BLOOD.] 



This arrangement is peculiar. There is no other gland in the 

 body in which the disposition of the blood-vessels is at all analogous : 

 .here is no other instance in which a vein is sent to a gland and 

 liatributed to it in the manner of an artery. This peculiarity has 

 naturally led physiologists to infer that the vein in this case pen 

 .he ordinary functions of an artery ; that it carries on the process 

 of secretion, and eliminates its product, the bile, out of venous 

 >lood. 



But whatever doubts physiologists may entertain by which of the 

 ;wo great vessels of the liver the bile is secreted, the con.-, 

 universal that the liver is the gland by which this fluid is formed. 

 When duly elaborated in this organ, the bile is received from the 

 secreting vessels by exceedingly minute tubes, the union of which 

 constitutes the excretory duct of the gland, which U termed the 

 lepatic duct. The hepatic duct passing on towards the duodenum, 

 which, physiologically considered, is a second stomach [ Diron 

 communicates with a small membranous cyst or bag, called the gall- 

 bladder, a reservoir for the bile. The duct of the gall-bladder, called 

 ;he cystic duct, unites with the hepatic duct, and both together form 

 a single tube, termed the choledoch duct, which pierces the duodenum. 

 Thus the hepatic duct, carrying the bile away from the liver, either 

 conveys it into the gall-bladder by means of the cystic duct, or 

 transmits it immediately into the duodenum by means of the ehol. - 

 doch duct. The bile which flows immediately into the duodenum is 

 .illc.l the hepatic bile ; that which is contained in the gall-bladder is 

 called the cystic bile. There is a striking difference in the external 

 characters of the two, cystic bile being of a much deeper colour, MV\ 

 much more viscid, pungent, and bitter than hepatic bile; but tin- 

 difference in their chemical properties, if there be any, has not been 

 ascertained : hepatic bile, on account of the difficulty of collecting it 

 in sufficient quantity, has not been analysed, while some portion of 

 bile is generally found in the gall-bladder after death. 



From actual experiment it would appear that the secretion of bile 

 is continually going on in the living system. In whatever circum- 

 stances an animal is placed if the orifice of the choledoch duct be 

 laid bare the bile is always seen to be flowing drop by drop into the 

 intestine. It is observed to flow much faster during the process of 

 digestion than when the stomach is empty ; and there is reason to 

 believe that, during the digestive process, the hepatic bile is secreted 

 in much larger quantity than when the stomach is empty, and that 

 it is then conveyed directly into the duodenum. The gall-hliul<lcr 

 fills when the stomach is empty, and when the stomach is full tin- 

 gall-bladder becomes comparatively empty. The gall-bladder, however, 

 is seldom if ever completely emptied. Vomiting contributes more 

 perhaps than any other action of the system to the expulsion of its 

 contents. Magendie states that he has often found it completely 

 empty in animals that died from the effects of an emetic poison. 



The physical characters of the bile are as follows : In colour it is 

 always a deep brown, but when seen in thin layers it has a browni-h- 



C" >w tint. It is very fluid, being viscid only in new-born infants, 

 specific gravity varies from 1.032 to 1.040. On examining with 

 the microscope bile from the gall-bladder, with which of course a cer- 

 tain amount of mucus is mixed, there are observed : 1, Transparent 

 or grayish round vesicles, about the 700th of a lino in diameter ; they 

 disappear on the addition of alcohol or ether, and ore remo\ 

 filtration. 2, Conical yellow bodies, about the 140th of a lino in 

 length, and about the 300th or 400th of a line in breadth, apparently 

 devoid of nuclei ; these are epithelial cells from the gall-bladder. 

 ''. Here and there irregular dark granules, which disappear on the 

 addition of a solution of potash, apparently pigment cells. 4, Occa- 

 sionally minute crystals of cholesterin, occurring as colourless rhombic 

 tablets. 



Chemically the bile is composed of several elements which have a 

 tendency to arrange themselves during chemical analysis in \.-iy 

 various forms. Not only are the four organic elements, carbon, 

 hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen present, but also sulphur, phosphorus, 

 sodium, potassium, calcium, and iron. The union of the organic 

 elements in different proportions will account for the various sub- 

 stances such as picromel, bilin, choleic acid, colic acid, taurinc, >tc., 

 which chemists have described in their analyses of biles. According 

 to Dr. Kemp the organic portion of ox-bile may be represented l>y the 

 formula 48 carbon, 42 hydrogen, 13 oxygen, and 1 nitrogen. The 

 following analyses of ox-bile and human bile, by Thenard and 

 Berzelius, will serve to show the nature of bile as well as the pro- 

 gram of chemical inquiry on this subject when contrasted with more 

 recent analyses. According to Theuord the composition of bile is as 

 follows : 



