260 DIGESTION. [CHAP. xxv. 



in which the bile accumulates until intestinal digestion begins, 

 evidently associates the use of the bile with that process. 



Sir Benjamin Brodie advocated the doctrine that the bile pre- 

 cipitated the white chyle from the chyme, and was necessary to 

 the formation of the former. He tied the common choledoch duct 

 in young cats, so as to prevent the passage of bile into the intestine ; 

 and he found that under these circumstances white chyle was not 

 formed, the lacteals being filled with a material apparently identical 

 with lymph.* Tiedemann and Gmelin experimented on dogs ; and, 

 although they affirm that chyle was formed in the intestine (the 

 accuracy of which statement must not be completely relied upon 

 in default of microscopical examination), yet they admit that 

 the contents of the lacteals in the dog operated on, consisted of 

 " a transparent liquid, not ivhite," while in the dog not operated on 

 it was white. 



By our own experiments, we have ascertained that the formation 

 of white chyle took place, notwithstanding the closure of the com- 

 mon bile-duct, provided the animal took a sufficient quantity of 

 fatty matter in its food. When this was not attended to, white 

 chyle was not obviously formed. But the most remarkable effects 

 of the ligature of the common duct were the emaciation, loss or 

 capriciousness of appetite, and the general debility which imme- 

 diately ensued upon it. Hence, although we do not subscribe to 

 the doctrine that the presence of bile in the small intestines is 

 essential to the formation of white chyle, we readily believe that 

 its exclusion from the bowels retards and impairs digestion. 



When the biliary duct is obstructed, and the bile does not pass 

 through its ordinary channels, the organs which suffer most disturb- 

 ance in their functions are the kidneys, as if when the liver fails in 

 its action, these organs took on the work of eliminating a certain 

 portion of the bile. They secrete urine loaded with the colouring- 

 matter of the bile ; and, at the same time, lithic acid, or lithate of 

 ammonia, or purpurate of ammonia (murexid), is formed in con- 

 siderable quantity. In cases of jaundice from obstruction, so long 

 as plenty of bile, or its colouring principle, appears in the urine, 

 and a normal quantity of urine is secreted, no very serious 

 symptoms arise ; but as soon as the kidneys fail, then indications 

 of poisoning either by bile or by urea, or both arise, and the 

 patients die in a comatose state. 



It is worthy of remark, that the hepatic cells contain more or less 

 of oily fat : and that under some, circumstances this fat accumulates 

 * Quarterly Journal of Science and the Arts, 1823. 



