FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER. 265 



the bile is allowed to pass out of the body without going 

 through the intestinal canal animals lose their power of 

 absorption, especially of fatty substances : they continue in 

 health, but require two or three times their usual quantity 

 of food. Digestion, properly so-called, is not, therefore, 

 impaired ; it is oniy absorption, especially of fats, which ia 

 insufficient (since absorption is the process which requires the 

 greatest activity on the part of the epithelium) ; the bile 

 appears to be connected with the absorption of the fatty 

 substances, by increasing the activity of the processes of 

 renovation, desquamation, and vegetation of the epithelium. 



C. Functions of the Liver. 



The share- taken by the bile in intestinal functions, espe- 

 cially in absorption, has already shown us the physiological 

 importance of that large viscus called the liver ; we have 

 seen that this organ has some effect upon the composition 

 of the blood, the formation and destruction of its globular 

 elements, particularly the red globules (see blood, p. 124). 

 Cl. Bernard's researches have finally revealed new functions 

 in this organ, glycogeny, showing it to have at least as much 

 effect on the constitution of the serum as on that of the 

 morphological or physical elements of the blood. 



We have already said (p. 233) that the liver is formed of 

 two glands, each of which penetrates the other; namely the 

 biliary gland and the vascular blood gland (Fig. 70). We 

 have studied the functions of the biliary gland ; which are 

 quite independent of those of the vascular gland, especially 

 from the stand-point of glycogeny (Cl. Bernard) ; study of 

 the development of the liver from the embryo serves to ex- 

 hibit this independence, especially in an anatomical point of 

 view (C. Morel. See p. 232.) Numerous and, perhaps, still 

 more interesting proofs of it are to be found in the facts 

 borrowed from pathology. 



Thus, in cirrhosis of the liver, an affection of the connective 

 tissue of this organ, although the great hepatic cells (glyco- 

 genic liver), are impaired by compression, or even destroyed, 

 the secretion of the bile, and, later, its pathological reabsorp- 

 tion (jaundice) goes on as usual, the canaliculi, or secreting 

 tubes, of the bile not having been first attacked. 



The/a^y degeneration of the liver, which affects only the 

 larger cells, produces no change in the secretion of the bile ; 

 and in very large livers whose substance lias been changed 

 almost entirely into fat, a considerable quantity of bile is still 



