270 



THE SECRETION OF THE BILE. 



[BOOK II. 



From the remarks which have been made con- 

 amount of bile cerning the difficulties which attend the collection of 

 and bile-solids the total quantity of bile secreted by animals with 

 secreted by biliary fistulas, the reader will be prepared for great 

 animals of discrepancies in the results obtained by various ex- 

 les * perimenters. When it is considered, moreover, that 

 some observers based their estimates upon the study of the secretion 

 in animals with temporary fistulse (Bidder and Schmidt, Colin), 

 whilst the majority confined their observations to animals with 

 permanent fistulse, one great source of discrepancy will be apparent. 



The attempt has been made to express the relation between the 

 amount of bile secreted per hour or per day in terms of the weight of 

 the animal. Inasmuch as different individuals of the same species 

 secrete bile differing in a remarkable degree in the amount of water 

 it contains, most experimenters have sought to determine not only 

 the total quantity of bile secreted but also the bile-solids. 



The first result which strikes one, in considering the quantity of 

 bile secreted, is that no comparison can be instituted in this respect 

 between animals of different species. The smaller the animal, as a 

 rule, the greater the quantity of bile secreted in relation to the 

 weight of its body. It might be supposed that this stands in 

 relation to the fact that the ratio of the weight of the liver to 

 the total weight of the body is greater in the case of small than it is 

 in that of large animals. As a matter of fact, however, the unit- 

 weight of liver secretes very much more bile in the case of small 

 than in that of large animals, as is shewn by the accompanying data 

 (Heidenhain). 



EELATION BETWEEN THE QUANTITY OF BILE SECKETED AND THE 

 WEIGHT OF THE BODY AND LIVEE. (HEIDENHAIN 1 .) 



Results of The dog is the animal on which by far the largest 

 observations on number of observations have been made, usually by 

 the dog. the method of permanent, but occasionally by that of 



temporary, fistulse. 



1 Heidenhain, loc. cit., Hermann's Handbuch, Vol. v. i. p. 253. 



