78 BILE. 



active part in the primary formation of these concretions ; indeed, 

 the frequency of their occurrence in certain districts in which the 

 water abounds in calcareous salts, and in old age, (when, as is well 

 known, there is an increased tendency to all kinds of calcareous 

 deposits, and when the separation of cholesterin is promoted by the 

 attenuation of the animal juices,) seems strongly to favour this view. 



We at present possess very few results, upon which the slightest 

 reliance can be placed, regarding the quantity of the biliary se- 

 cretion. By proceeding on perfectly different assumptions, some 

 physiologists have calculated the amount of bile secreted in the 

 human subject in twenty-four hours, at only one ounce, while 

 others have considered that it amounts to as much as twenty-four. 

 Blondlot, from his observations on dogs, in which he had esta- 

 blished fistulous openings into the gall-bladder, calculated that one 

 of these animals secreted between 40 and 50 grammes of bile in 

 twenty-four hours ; and hence that the amount secreted by man 

 during the same time, would be about 200 grammes [or between 

 6 and 7 ounces]. Bidder and Schmidtf have investigated this 

 subject in a most accurate and ingenious manner. They arrive at 

 the conclusion, from a large number of experiments on cats, that a 

 cat weighing one kilogramme [nearly three pounds], when its di- 

 gestion is most perfect, that is to say, when its biliary secretion 

 is most abundant, secretes 0*765 of a gramme of fluid bile, cor- 

 responding to 0*050 of a gramme of solid residue in an hour; 

 while, after ten days' fasting, there is secreted in the same interval 

 only 0-094 of a gramme of fluid bile, yielding, when dried at 100, 

 a solid residue of 0*0076 of a gramme. 



The secretion of bile is continuous; but, as is shown in the 

 above cases, it is augmented or diminished according to the state 

 of the digestion. Bidder and Schmidt found that the secretion 

 attained its maximum ten or twelve hours after a copious meal, 

 and from then till twenty-four hours after the meal, it gradually 

 diminished, till it attained the same quantity which was secreted 

 one or two hours after eating. In prolonged starvation, the 

 quantity of the secreted bile gradually and progressively 

 diminishes. 



Thus, for instance, if a cat, weighing one kilogramme, dis- 

 charges 0'492 of a gramme of fresh bile (obtained direct from the 



* I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Schmidt for these results. The 

 excellent memoir, containing a detailed account of their experiments, is not yet 

 published. [It has since appeared, and is often referred to in the third volume 

 of this work. G. E. D.] 



