CHAP. V.] THE ANTISEPTIC ACTION OF THE BILE. 



357 



decomposition which causes the x peculiar fbetor no longer occurs 1 - 2 . 

 It has, of late, been maintained that it is not the withdrawal of the 

 antiseptic action of the bile which is the cause of this putrid de- 

 composition but the presence of unabsorbed fat in the contents of 

 the large intestine. The fat is supposed to act by preventing the 

 proper digestion of the albuminous food substances, which, being 

 enveloped in fat, undergo putrefaction. It may be true that 

 the presence of fats favours somewhat the putrefactive decom- 

 position of the proteids, though it appears to the Author that it is 

 quite inadequate to explain it. The faeces of children as well as of 

 adults when living upon a diet of milk alone contain far larger quan- 

 tities of undigested proteids than the faeces of animals with biliary 

 fistulae, and they contain likewise much undigested fat, and yet 

 there is usually a remarkable absence of foetor and particularly of 

 that which characterises the faeces in which no bile is present. The 

 same remark applies to cases in which large quantities of vegetable 

 or animal oils are administered and in which the faeces always con- 

 tain much fatty matter which has escaped decomposition. In two 

 cases of fatty stools associated with disease of the pancreas, without 

 pressure on the common bile-duct, which the Author has had occasion 

 to observe, there was, in spite of large quantities of unabsorbed fat, 

 a complete absence of the fcetor under discussion. How then can 

 we explain the disappearance of the foetid decomposition when dogs 

 with biliary fistulae are fed on a diet in which fats have been re- 

 placed by carbohydrates ? Doubtless, the acids resulting from the 

 fermentation of carbohydrates in the intestines exert an influence 

 on the alimentary contents which adequately compensates for that 

 normally exerted by the bile acids. 



Maly and Emich 3 have shewn that the free bile acids, and 

 especially taurocholic acid, exert a powerful antiseptic action, and 

 their statements have been confirmed by the observations of Linder- 

 berger*. Admitting that free taurocholic acid is nearly as powerful 

 an antiseptic as salicylic acid, as Maly and Emich assert, it may be 

 urged that, as the bile does not contain free bile acids, any argument 

 based on the properties of these is faulty. The reader is reminded, 

 however, that the matter is not as simple as it appears at first sight 

 to be. In the first place, we have seen that in three various ways we 

 may have the bile acids precipitated when the bile comes in contact 

 with the acid chyme : viz. in combination with syntonin or with 

 antialbumat if these substances are present and the bile contains 



1 Volt, op. dt. 



2 F. Bohmann, ' Beobachtungen an Hunden mit Gallenfisteln,' Pfliiger's Archiv, 

 Vol. xxix. (1883), p. 295. 



3 Maly und Emich, ' Ueber das Verhalten der Gallensauren zu Eiweiss und 

 Peptonen und iiber deren antiseptische Wirkungen,' Monatschrift f. Chemie, Vol. iv. 

 (1883), pp. 89120. 



4 V. Linderberger, 'Ueber die Bedeutung der Galle fur die Faulnissprocesse im 

 Dunndarm.' Abstracted from the original Swedish paper, by Hammarsten. Maly's 

 Jahresb. Vol. xiv. (1885), p. 334. 



