100 BILE. 



which must be regarded as the residua or secondary products of the 

 process which gives rise to the formation or rejuvenescence of blood- 

 cells in the liver ; in the latter class we must especially place the 

 fats and certain of the mineral constituents, while the nitrogenous 

 substances, fibrin and haematin, are the most important members 

 of the former. Hence we do not regard the bile as the product 

 of the metamorphosis of any single morphological or chemical 

 constituent of the animal body (neither of the fat-cells nor of the 

 albuminates) ; but we believe that several substances, chemically 

 and morphologically distinct from one another, undergo alterations 

 in the liver, and that their individual products unite in the nascent 

 state, and thus form the compounds and admixture of substances 

 which we find in the bile. 



In order that we may not omit any element which may contri- 

 bute to our knowledge of the functions of the bile, we must still 

 consider what finally becomes of this secretion in the intestinal 

 canal ; as, however, this subject will be discussed in the chapter 

 on " the intestinal juice/' it will suffice here if we merely com- 

 municate the result of our experiments. The bile becomes 

 gradually decomposed in the c ourse of the intestinal canal, the 

 conjugated acids breaking up and forming choloidic (or cholic) 

 acid, which become converted into dyslysin a substance that 

 may be traced even into the rectum and the feeces ; although the 

 amount of biliary residue of this kind diminishes in the lower 

 portion of the intestinal canal to such a degree that we are almost 

 compelled to adopt Liebig's view, according to which the resinous 

 constituents of the bile are for the most part resorbed from the 

 intestine into the vascular system. Notwithstanding that the 

 intestinal veins opening into the portal system, and the lacteals, 

 afford the only means by which these biliary matters might again 

 enter the blood, I have never succeeded in detecting the presence 

 of such substances either in the chyle or (as has been already 

 mentioned) in the portal blood in the normal state during the 

 process of digestion. Hence, if there is no fallacy regarding the 

 small quantity of dyslysin found in the solid excrements, we 

 should be compelled to assume that the already modified biliary 

 matters, absorbed by the lymphatics, were so changed in the 

 glands that they no longer admitted of detection by the chemical 

 means at present at our command. 



The bile-pigments, although very much modified, are also found 

 in the solid excrements, in addition to cholesterin and taurine. 

 The soluble mineral constituents of the bile return from the 



