218 



THE BILE. 



below the orifice of the lower pancreatic duct. The other extremity of 

 the tube was left projecting from the external opening in the abdo- 

 minal parietes, the parts secured by sutures, and the wound allowed to 

 heal. After cicatrization was complete, and the animal had entirely 

 recovered his healthy condition and appetite, the intestinal fluids 

 were drawn off at various intervals after feeding, and their contents 

 examined. This operation, which is rather more difficult than that of 

 making a permanent gastric fistula, is nevertheless exceedingly useful 

 when it succeeds, since it enables us to study the actual time and rate 

 of the biliary discharge into the upper part of the intestinal canal. 



In order to ascertain the absolute quantity of bile discharged into the 

 intestine, and its variations during digestion, the duodenal fluids were 

 drawn off, for fifteen minutes at a time, at various periods after feeding, 

 collected, weighed, and examined separately, as follows : each separate 

 quantity was evaporated to dryness, its dry residue extracted with 

 absolute alcohol, the alcoholic solution precipitated with ether, and the 

 ether-precipitate, regarded as representing the amount of biliary salts 

 present, dried, weighed, and then treated with Pettenkofer's test, in 

 order to determine, as nearly as possible, their degree of purity or ad-: 

 mixture. The result of these experiments is given in the following 

 table. At the eighteenth hour so small a quantity of fluid was obtained 

 that the amount of its biliary ingredients was not ascertained. It 

 reacted perfectly, however, with Pettenkofer's test, showing that bile 

 was really present. 



DISCHARGE OF INTESTINAL AND BILIARY FLUIDS FROM DUODENAL FISTULA IN A 

 DOG WEIGHING 16.5 KILOGRAMMES. 



From this it appears that the bile passes into the duodenum in by far 

 the largest quantity immediately after feeding. This is undoubtedly 

 due to a contraction of the gall-bladder and a discharge of the surplus 

 bile accumulated in it during the interval of digestion. It is a matter 

 of common observation that the gall-bladder, in animals killed after a 

 day or two of fasting, is distended with an unusual quantity of thick 

 and dark-looking bile ; while in those killed immediately or soon after 



