FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER. 331 



result of some experiments by Wistinghausen and Hoff- 

 mann, that the moistening of the mucous membrane of the 

 intestines by bile may facilitate absorption of fatty matters 

 through it. 



(3.) The bile, like the gastric fluid, has a strongly 

 antiseptic power, and may serve to prevent the decompo- 

 sition of food during the time of its sojourn in the intes- 

 tines. The experiments of Tiedemann and Gmelin show 

 that the contents of the intestines are much more foetid 

 after the common bile-duct has been tied than at other 

 times ; and the experiments of Bidder and Schmidt on 

 animals with an artificial biliary fistula, confirm this 

 observation ; moreover, it is found that the mixture of bile 

 with a fermenting fluid stops or spoils the process of fer- 

 mentation. 



(4.) The bile has also been considered to act as a kind 

 of natural purgative, by promoting an increased secretion 

 of the intestinal glands, and by stimulating the intestines 

 to the propulsion of their contents. This view receives 

 support from the constipation which ordinarily exists in 

 jaundice, from the diarrhoea which accompanies excessive 

 secretion of bile, and from the purgative properties of 

 ox-gall. 



Nothing is known with certainty respecting the changes 

 which the re-absorbed portions of the bile undergo, either 

 in the intestines or in the absorbent vessels. That they 

 are much changed appears from the impossibility of 

 detecting them in the blood ; and that part of this change 

 is effected in the liver is probable from an experiment 

 of Magendie, who found that when he injected bile 

 into the portal vein a dog was unharmed, but was 

 killed when he injected the bile into one of the systemic 

 vessels. 



The secretion of bile, as already observed, is only one 

 of the purposes fulfilled by the liver. Another very im- 

 portant function appears to be that of so acting upon 



