CHAP. XXV.] USE OF THE BILE. 257 



admission of the bile into the intestinal canal is always followed 

 by a greater or less derangement of digestion, and by more or less 

 emaciation. But, as these consequences might arise not so much 

 from the want of a due admixture of bile with the food which 

 is undergoing digestion, as from the accumulation of the elements 

 of the bile in the blood, which must derange all the functions 

 more or less, Professor Schwann, of Louvain, tried some experi- 

 ments which had for their object to stop the flow of bile into the 

 bowel, and at the same time to provide for its secretion. He tied 

 the common bile-duct in dogs, Jiaving first established an orifice of 

 communication between the gall-bladder and the skin, through 

 which the bile flowed out of the body as soon as it was secreted, 

 instead of passing into the bowel. It is plain, that if the bile 

 were merely excretory, such an operation should produce no 

 injurious effect upon the animal, as still excretion was amply pro- 

 vided for.* 



Schwann found that of eighteen dogs operated upon in this way 

 two only survived, and in these the divided bile duct was found re- 

 established and the bile had resumed its usual channel. Of the 

 remaining sixteen, ten died of the immediate effects of the operation, 

 and the remaining six lingered on for some time, and ultimately 

 died, without exhibiting any other cause for the fatal termination 

 excepting the absence of bile in the intestinal canal. These six died 

 at periods varying from seven days (in a young dog) to two months 

 and a half, the average being two or three weeks after the opera- 

 tion. During this time, they exhibited indications of a very enfeebled 

 nutrition, emaciation, muscular weakness, unsteadiness of gait, fall- 

 ing off of the hairs ; symptoms which became more developed the 

 longer the dog survived the operation. The emaciation, indicated 

 by a deficiency of weight, began generally on the third day from 

 the operation. When the dogs licked the bile as it flowed out of 

 the fistulous opening, and thus introduced it into the stomach, the 

 digestion in that viscus was not impeded, nor were the results of 

 the operation otherwise embarrassed, showing that it was capable 

 of being digested by the stomach. 



Blondlot makes an objection to Schwann's experiments, that, 

 from his mode of operating, the external opening is apt to close, 

 and thus the excretion of the bile is impeded, and the nature of 

 the secretion altered. He adopted a different operation, and pro- 

 vided for the free discharge of bile by inserting a canula in the 



* Experiences pour constater si la Bile joue dans 1'Economie Animale un 

 Rdle essentiel pour la Vie. Mem. de 1'Acad. Roy. de Bruxelles, an. 1814. 



