THE LIVER. 159 



that the blood-coloring matters pass into the bile in poisoning and in other 

 cases, causing a destruction of the blood -corpuscles (WERTHEIMER and 

 -M.EYER, s ILEHNE). 



Chemical Formation of the Bile. The first question to be 

 answered is the following : Do the specific constituents of the bile, 

 the bile-acids and bile-pigments, originate in the liver; and if this 

 is the case, do they come from this organ only, or are they also 

 formed elsewhere? 



The investigations of the blood, and especially the comparative 

 investigations of the blood of the portal and hepatic veins under 

 normal conditions, have not given any answer to this question. To 

 decide this, therefore, it is necessary to extirpate the liver of 

 animals or isolate it from the circulation. If the bile constituents 

 are not formed in the liver or at least not alone in this organ, but 

 only eliminated from the blood, then, after the extirpation or re- 

 moval of the liver from the circulation, an accumulation of the bik 

 constituents is to be expected in the blood and tissues. If the bile- 

 constituents, on the contrary, are formed exclusively in the liver, 

 then the above operation naturally would give no such result. It 

 the choledochus duct is tied, then the bile constituents will be 

 collected in the blood or tissues whether they are formed in the 

 liver or elsewhere. 



From these principles KEENER has tried to demonstrate by ex- 

 periments on frogs that the bile-acids are produced exclusively in the 

 liver. While he was unable to detect any bile-acids in the blood 

 and tissues of these animals after extirpation of the liver, still hs 

 was able to discover them on tying the choledochus duct. The 

 investigations of LUDWIG and FLEISCHL show that in the dog 

 the bile-acids originate in the liver alone. After tying the chole- 

 dochus duct they observed that the bile constituents were absorbed 

 by the lymphatic vessels and passed into the blood through the 

 thoracic duct. - Bile-acids could be detected in the blood after such 

 an operation, while they could not be detected in the normal blood. 

 But when the choledochus and thoracic ducts were both tied at the 

 same time, then not the least trace of bile-acids could be detected 

 in the blood, while if they are also formed in other organs and tissues 

 they should have been present. The general opinion is that the 

 bile-acids are formed onlv in the liver; still there are investigators 



