FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER. 265 



as to be mingled with the chyme directly after it leaves the 

 stomach ; an arrangement, the constancy of which clearly in- 

 dicates that the bile has some important relations to the food 

 with which it is thus mixed. A similar indication is furnished 

 also by the fact that the secretion of bile is most active, and 

 the quantity discharged into the intestines much greater, 

 during digestion than at any other time ; although, without 

 doubt, this activity of secretion during digestion may, how- 

 ever, be in part ascribed to the fact that a greater quantity of 

 blood is sent through the portal vein to the liver at this time, 

 and that this blood contains some of the materials of the food 

 absorbed from the stomach and intestines, which may need 

 to be excreted, either temporarily, to be reabsorbed, or per- 

 manently. 



Respecting the functions discharged by the bile in diges- 

 tion, there is little doubt that it assists in emulsifying the 

 fatty portions of the food, and thus rendering them capable of 

 being absorbed by the lacteals. For it has appear in some 

 experiments in which the common bile-duct was tied, that 

 although the process of digestion in the stomach was un- 

 affected, chyle was no longer well-formed ; the contents of the 

 lacteals consisting of clear, colorless fluid, instead of being 

 opaque and white, as they ordinarily are, after feeding. (2.) 

 It is probable, also, from the result of some experiments by 

 Wistinghausen and Hoffmann, that the moistening of the 

 mucous membrane of the intestines by bile may facilitate ab- 

 sorption of fatty matters through it. 



(3.) The bile, like the gastric fluid, has a strongly antisep- 

 tic power, and may serve to prevent the decomposition of food 

 during the time of its sojourn in the intestines. The experi- 

 ments of Tiedemaun and Gmelin show that the contents of the 

 intestines are much more fetid after the common bile-duct has 

 been tied than at other times ; and the experiments of Bidder 

 and Schmidt on animals with an artificial biliary fistula, con- 

 firm this observation ; moreover, it is found that the mixture 

 of bile with a fermenting fluid stops or spoils the process of 

 fermentation. 



(4.) The bile has also been considered to act as a kind of 

 natural purgative, by promoting an increased secretion of the 

 intestinal glands, and by stimulating the intestines to the pro- 

 pulsion of their contents. This view receives support from 

 the constipation which ordinarily exists in jaundice, from the 

 diarrhrea which accompanies excessive secretion of bile, and 

 from the purgative properties of ox-gall. 



Nothing is known with certainty respecting the changes 

 which the reabsorbed portions of the bile undergo, either in 



