THE BILE: MECONIUM. 333 



and hydrogen from the blood ; and its adaptation to this 

 purpose is well illustrated by the peculiarities attending 

 its secretion and disposal in the foetus. During intra- 

 uterine life, the lungs and the intestinal canal are almost 

 inactive ; there is no respiration of open air or digestion 

 of food ; these are unnecessary, because of the supply of 

 well-elaborated nutriment received by the vessels of the 

 foetus at the placenta. The liver, during the same time, 

 is proportionally larger than it is after birth, and the se- 

 cretion of bile is active, although there is no food in the 

 intestinal canal upon which it can exercise any digestive 

 property. At birth, the intestinal canal is full of thick 

 bile, mixed with intestinal secretion ; for the meconium, or 

 fseces of the foetus, are shown by the analyses of Simon and 

 of Frerichs to contain all the essential principles of bile. 



Composition of Meconium (Frerichs) : 



Biliary resin 15-6 



Cholesterin, olein, and margarin . . . 15-4 



Epithelium, mucus, pigment, and salts . . 69- 



loo- 



In the foetus, therefore, the main purpose of the secretion 

 of bile must be the purification of the blood by direct 

 excretion, i.e., by separation from the blood, and ejection 

 from the body without further change. Probably all the 

 bile secreted, in foetal life is incorporated in the meconium, 

 and with it discharged, and thus the liver may be said to 

 discharge a function in some sense vicarious of that of the 

 lungs. For, in the foetus, nearly all the blood coming from 

 the placenta passes through the liver, previous to its dis- 

 tribution to the several organs of the body ; and the 

 abstraction of carbon, hydrogen, and other elements of bile 

 will purify it, as in extra-uterine life the separation of 

 carbonic acid and water at the lungs does. 



The evident disposal of the foetal bile by excretion, makes 

 it highly probable that the bile in extra-uterine life is 



