340 THE CHOLESTERIN OF THE BILE. L BOOK IL 



Naunyn mainly on the ground of experiments on rabbits with tem- 

 porary, and dogs with permanent biliary fistulse, in which cholesterin was 

 administered by the mouth or injected hypodermically, without sensibly 

 increasing the amount of cholesterin excreted, comes (as the Author 

 thinks) to the most improbable conclusion that the normal choles- 

 terin of the bile is not derived from the blood but is of local origin, 

 i.e. is derived from the mucous membrane of the gall-bladder. The 

 crudeness, the obvious fallacies, attaching to the method of experimenting 

 selected by Naunyn, are so obvious as to render any conclusions from his 

 experiments much less trustworthy than those based on the observations 

 of Frerichs. This distinguished physician cautiously asserted that whilst 

 it is not certain, but only probable, that an increased quantity of cholesterin 

 in the blood augments the amount of this constituent in the bile, the 

 arrest of the excretion of the bile certainly leads to an increase of cholesterin 

 in the blood 1 . 



There can be no question that cholesterin, besides being a constituent 

 of the nervous tissues, the blood and the bile, exists in minute quantities 

 in all animal and vegetable tissues rich in cells. It is present in small 

 quantities in milk, but particularly it is produced in all pathological 

 processes in which a destruction of cells occurs. It seems to be a product 

 of the degeneration of cell protoplasm, especially where this is accompanied 

 by the appearance of fatty matters; thus is explained its occurrence in 

 pus. If we except milk, which is a secretion which is a product of specific 

 transformations which occur in the protoplasm of the secretory cells of the 

 mammary glands, and which lead to the formation of fat, no normal secre- 

 tion but bile contains an appreciable quantity of cholesterin, and a process 

 of reasoning by analogy would lead us to require evidence, such as has 

 certainly not hitherto been adduced, before we could admit even the possi- 

 bility of the cholesterin of normal bile being derived from the mucous 

 membrane of the gall-bladder. 



The proportion of lecithin, or of the products of de- 

 composition of protagen and lecithin in the bile, is much 

 greater than in any other secretion of the economy a fact which, 

 taken in connection with its cholesterin excreting function, makes it 

 not improbable that the liver is specially concerned in excreting 

 certain metabolic products of the nerve centres. 



Diastatic I n reference to the diastatic ferment, it is to be re- 



ferment, marked that nearly all observations made on the bile 



of man, obtained from fistulse, have revealed that the secretion 

 possesses exceedingly feeble diastatic properties. No importance 

 whatever can, however, be attached to the presence of such minute 

 traces of ferment. 



1 'Ob die Zunahme der Cholesterinmenge im Blute wahrend des hb'heren Alters 

 einen steigenden Gehalt der Galle herbeifuhre und darauf zum Theil die grossere 

 Haufigkeit der Steine wahrend dieser Lebensepoche beruhe, bleibt dahingestellt ; es 1st 

 dies mehr als wahrscheinlich ; jedenfalls influirt die Gallensecretion auf die Choles- 

 terinmenge im Blut ; sie nimmt zu, wo die Lebersecretion vermindert wird.' Frerichs, 

 Klinik d. Leberlcrankheiten, Bd. n. p. 486. 



