98 BILE. 



tion of the saponified fat, which must have been the case if the 

 hepatic cells burst and discharged their contents. 



In connexion with the mineral substances of the bile, we shall 

 first notice the alkali which it contains, and which is combined 

 with the conjugated biliary acids, with fatty acids, and with pig- 

 ment. Since both the water-extract and the spirit-extract of the 

 portal blood yield alkaline carbonates on incineration, we can easily 

 comprehend the source of these alkalies. Moreover, the albumi- 

 nate of soda, in its transmission into the blood-cells, must also 

 lose soda, which may contribute to the saponifi cation of the fats 

 and the formation of the biliary acid. In examining the ashes of 

 the blood-serum of the hepatic and portal veins, I have found 

 about as much, and, indeed, often rather more alkaline carbonates 

 in the former than in the latter ; but it must be considered that 

 the blood of the hepatic veins contains little more than half as 

 much intercellular fluid as the portal blood, and that consequently 

 the whole of the blood of the hepatic veins contains far less alkali 

 in combination with organic matters, than the whole of the portal 

 blood. The same relation holds also with the alkaline carbonates, 

 which I have found to exist pre-formed (by the method described 

 in vol. i. p. 438) in both kinds of blood :' to determine them quan- 

 titively was impossible; but it appeared to me (and to several 

 eye-witnesses, the experiments being frequently repeated) as if 

 the portal blood, when placed under the receiver of the air-pump, 

 began to evolve air-bubbles in a less rarified atmosphere, and 

 more abundantly, than the blood of the hepatic veins. 



The quantity of the soluble phosphates in the bile is extremely 

 small ; like the earthy phosphates, they principally arise from the 

 mucus of the gall- ducts. I have not found a constant difference 

 between the amount of soluble phosphates in the blood entering 

 into and flowing from the liver; the earthy phosphates would 

 rather appear to pass from the blood into the bile ; at all events, 

 I invariably found more earthy phosphates in the clot of portal 

 blood than in that yielded by the blood of the hepatic veins. 



With regard to the alkaline chlorides which abound in the ashes 

 of bile, the different quantities occurring in the two kinds of blood 

 sufficiently explain their origin ; in the serum of the portal blood, 

 which has a comparatively low specific gravity, we find from 

 0'28 to 0'31^ of chlorine, while in the denser serum of the blood 

 from the hepatic veins only about 0'22{f is found. On the other 

 hand, the amount of chlorine in the blood-cells is much the same 

 in both kinds of blood, and averages about 0*1 65. Hence a 



