412 Veterinary Medicine. 



In regard to the glycogenic action it ma}^ be said that in cats, 

 the bile ducts of which have been tied, no glycogen was formed, 

 even when the diabetic puncture of the brain was made (Legg). 

 Clinical observation seems to throw some doubt on the formation 

 of bile coloring matter apart from the liver. In diseased liver 

 with suspended secretion of bile (waxy and fatt}' degeneration, 

 cancer, cirrhosis) the bile pigment was found in neither blood nor 

 urine (Frerichs, Murchison, Haspell, Budd). Even after extir- 

 pation of the liver in frogs, neither biliary acid nor pigment 

 could be found in the blood (Miiller, Lehmann, Moleschott). 

 These results must, however, be qualified b}' the observations of 

 Hammersten who found bilirubin as a normal constituent of blood 

 serum in the horse, and by Virchow's discovery that hgematoidin 

 (now held to be identical with bilirubin) is constant]}' found in 

 old blood extravasations into the tissues. 



The origin of the bile coloring matters may be traced in part to 

 destruction of red globules in the liver. Quincke has shown that 

 in the hepatic capillaries in post-embr3^onic life the leucocytes 

 englobe and destroy the old and worn out red blood corpu.scles 

 which thus become a source of bile coloring matter. Such 

 destruction is specially likely to occur in badly maintained condi- 

 tions of the blood, and in hepatitis or other liver disease in which 

 the white cells accumulate in the hepatic capillaries, and when 

 the blood current is retarded. Hence the liability to jaundice in 

 such conditions. The formation of new red blood corpuscles has 

 been observed in the protoplasmic cells of the liver in the embryo, 

 but this has not been established for post-embryonic life (Neu- 

 mann, Lowit). 



The two common coloring matters of the bile are bilirubin 

 which colors the yellow bile of man, omnivora, and carnivora 

 and biliverdin wliich tints the dark green bile of herbivora. 

 Bilirubin (C3.^H3gN^Og) forms transparent fox red clinorhombic 

 prisms. It is insoluble in water but .soluble in chloroform, and 

 may thus be separated from the biliverdin which is insoluble in 

 chloroform. United as a second basic acid with alkalies it is 

 soluble in water. It is easily obtained from the red gall-.stones 

 of man or ox, and is chemically identical with haematoidin. 

 Biliverdin (C3.,H3gN^OJ is an oxidized derivative of bilirubin and 

 is insolui^le in chloroform, slightly soluble in ether and freeh' 



