CHAP. IV.] 



THE RESEARCHES OF WERTHEIMER. 



281 



duced bile into the stomach of dogs and found that the quantity 

 secreted began to increase in the course of half-an-hour, attaining its 

 maximum in from three to four hours and then gradually sinking 1 . 



Heidenhain 2 commenting upon these results argued, with perfect 

 justice, that, by themselves, they were not sufficient to prove that 

 the substances conveyed to the liver in the portal blood actually 

 passed into the secretion, for they might merely act by exciting the 

 secreting elements of the gland to increased activity. Socoloff 3 

 had, indeed, endeavoured to determine whether absorbed bile acids 

 are excreted in the bile, by injecting sodium of glykocholate into 

 the stomach and into the blood of dogs. As the bile of the dog 

 normally contains no salt of glykocholic acid, its appearance in the 

 secretion would have established conclusively the truth of Schiff's 

 hypothesis. Socoloff found, however, that under these circumstances 

 no glykocholic acid was excreted. Admitting the accuracy of Soco- 

 loffs observations, which have however since been contradicted by 

 PreVost and Binet 4 , they do not in any respect disprove the hypothesis 

 of Schiff, for it is conceivable, nay probable, that the glykocholic 

 may be split up into glycocine and cholalic acid and that the latter 

 may be utilised by the liver in the synthesis of taurocholic acid, the 

 normal bile acid of the dog. 



Werthei- A new and very beautiful series of researches 



mers re- have now placed beyond the possibility of doubt that 



Schiff's theory is absolutely correct in so far as the 

 colouring matters of the bile are concerned. Taken in connection 

 with the increase of bile and bile-solids, observed by the majority 

 of observers, when bile is introduced into the portal system or into 

 the general circulation, these experiments render it probable that 

 what has been proved to be true in the case of the colouring 

 matters likewise holds good for bile acids. 



The idea which was the foundation of the conclusive experiments 

 about to be referred to was to introduce into the blood of one 

 animal the bile of another of different species, and of which the 

 colouring matters are peculiar, and to observe whether the foreign 

 bile colouring matters which have been introduced into the blood 

 are excreted in the bile. The first experiments of this kind were 

 made by Baldi 5 , under Luciani's direction, in the Physiological 

 Laboratory of Florence. Baldi injected ox-bile into the veins of 

 dogs with permanent biliary fistula and observed, in general, an 

 almost immediate increase in the quantity of bile secreted, the 

 increase continuing for some hours; moreover, the colour of the 



1 Rosenkranz, Ueber das Schicksal und die Bedeutung einiger Gallenbestand- 

 theile,' Verhandlungen der physiol.-med. Gesellsch. in Wiirzburg, Vol. xm. (1879), pp. 

 218232. 



2 Heidenhain, ' Gallenabsonderung, ' Hermann's Handbuch, Vol. v. i. p. 259. 



3 Socoloff, ' Bin Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Lebersecretion,' Pfliiger's Archiv, Vol. 

 xi. (1875), p. 166. 



4 Prevost and Binet, Comptes Rendus, Vol. 106 (1888), pp. 1690. 



5 D. Baldi, 'Recherches experimentales sur la marche de la secretion biliaire.' 

 ResumS de 1'auteur. Archives Italiennes de Biologie, Vol. in. (1883), pp. 389397. 



