CHAP. VI.] 



EXCRETION OF DRUGS IN THE BILE. 



375 



up by the liver and either retained by that organ or excreted in the 

 bile, so that in the investigation of cases of poisoning by arsenic, 

 antimony, mercury, copper, lead and zinc, the examination of the 

 liver is of particular importance. Copper, in particular, has been 

 found to be an almost constant, though doubtless an adventitious, 

 constituent of liver and the bile, and its presence is to be accounted 

 for by the fact that the food of man, especially the vegetable food, 

 always contains traces of copper 1 . Ellenberger and Hofmeister found 

 0'02 and 0'04 per cent, of CuO in the bile of the sheep 2 . Zinc has 

 also been frequently found in the liver and tissues of human beings 

 and animals 3 . 



Claude Bernard found that sulphate of copper, iodide of potas- 

 sium, spirit of turpentine and grape sugar, when injected into the 

 blood, rapidly pass into the bile. Amongst other substances which 

 are excreted in the bile are: potassium chlorate (Prevost and Binet 4 ); 

 salicylic acid. Diakonow 5 shewed that when indigo-carmin is in- 

 jected into the jugular vein of the rabbit, after the method of 

 Chrontschewsky 6 , as well as when it is injected subcutaneously 

 or introduced into the stomach, it is rapidly excreted in the bile. 

 Peiper 7 made the interesting observation that in dogs with perma- 

 nent biliary fistulae, when iodide of potassium was introduced in 

 large doses (5 grms) into the rectum, it could only be detected 

 in the bile 5 or 6 hours after the injection. Sodium salicylate 

 was found within half an hour. Sulphocyanide of potassium also 

 passed into the bile, but neither potassium ferrocyanide nor ferri- 

 cyanide. 



Wertheimer 8 has shewn that the sodium compound of phyllocyanic 

 acid, which is an immediate derivative of chlorophyll-green, when 

 introduced into the blood, is rapidly excreted by the bile. Amongst 

 substances which are not excreted in the bile may be mentioned 



1 The reader is referred to the exceedingly complete and interesting Monograph by 

 Dr A. Tschirch, Professor of Pharmacognosy, Pharmacy and Toxicology in the 

 University of Bern, entitled Das Kupfer vom Standpunkte der gerichtlichen Chemie, 

 Toxicologie und Hygiene. Stuttgart, Verlag von Ferdinand Enke, 1893, pp. 138. In 

 this work will be found inter alia a complete account of the literature relating to the 

 distribution of copper throughout the animal and vegetable kingdom. 



2 Ellenberger und Hofmeister, Archiv f. wissensch. u. prakt. Thierheilkunde, 

 1883, p. 325. Quoted by Tschirch, op. cit. p. 19. 



3 G. Lechartier and F. Bellamy, ' Sur la presence du zinc dans le corps des animaux 

 et dans les vegetaux.' Comptes Rendus, Vol. LXXXIV. p. 687. F. Raoult and H. Breton, 

 ' Sur la presence ordinaire du cuivre et du zinc dans le corps de l'homme.' Comptes 

 Rendus, Vol. LXXXV. p. 40. 



4 Prevost and Binet, 'Recherches experimentales relatives a 1'action des medica- 

 ments sur la secretion biliaire et a leur elimination par cette secretion.' Revue medi- 

 cale de la Suisse romande. No. 520, Mai, 1888. 



5 Diakonow, ' Ueber das Verhalten der Indigoschwefelsaure im thierischen Organ- 

 ismus.' Hoppe-Seyler's Med.-chem. Untersuchungen, Berlin, 1866, pp. 245 254. 



6 Chrontschewsky, Virchow's Archiv, 1866. 



7 E. Peiper, ' Uebergang von Arzneimitteln aus dem Blute in die Galle nach 

 Resorption von der Mastdarmschleimhaut aus.' Zcitschrift f. klin. Med. Vol. iv. 

 (18*2), p. 402 et seq. 



8 M. E. Wertheimer, 'Sur 1'elimiuation par le foie de la matiere colorante verte des 

 vegetaux.' Archives de Physiologie, Jan. 1893, pp. 124130. 



