THE JUICES POURED OUT UPON THE FOOD. 71 



mon duct. The quantity of bile secreted in twenty-four 

 hours varies not only in different animals but in the same 

 animal under different circumstances. Contrary to the 

 generally accepted view, the secretion of bile is not con- 

 tinuous and of varying intensity, that is to say, remittent, 

 but intermittent. During certain periods no bile whatsoever 

 escapes into the intestine. According to VON WITTICH and 

 WESTPHALEN, the total amount of bile secreted by a human 

 being in twenty-four hours is about 500 c.c. 1 These obser- 

 vations were made on two men having biliary fistulae. The 

 specific gravity of the bile is, according to WESTPHALEN, 

 1.0104. In 100 parts of liquid bile are contained 2.253 

 parts of solids. 



All these figures must be looked upon as only approxi- 

 mately correct. Later, 2 when the quantitative and quali- 

 tative variations in the secretion of the bile are discussed, 

 the reason for this will be more apparent. This explains 

 also why the figures of scarcely any two of the score of 

 observers who have worked on the biliary secretion 

 agree. 



The bile consists of the secretions of the liver-cells them- 

 selves, mixed with the mucus which is secreted by the bile- 

 channels and the gall-bladder. As the bile passes from the 

 liver-cells toward the intestine it undergoes a change, the 

 bile from the gall-bladder and lower bile-passages being 

 somewhat more viscid, because of loss of water and ad- 

 mixture with mucus, and cloudier, because of the presence 

 of cells and cellular debris, than that collected from the bile- 

 passages higher up. The color of the bile is different in 

 different animals, and in the same animal, depending upon 

 the conditions under which it has been obtained. Human 

 bile obtained immediately after death has a golden-yellow, 

 brownish-yellow, or at times slightly greenish color. That 



1 VIERORDT: Tabellen, Jena, 1888, p. 135. 



2 See Chapter XIII, Part 1. 



