BILE IS DERIVED FROM VENOUS BLOOD. 203 



Composition of Meconium. (From Simon.) 



Cholesterine 160.00 



Extractive and bilifellinic acid 140.00 



Casein 340.00 



Bilifellinic acid and bilin 60.00 



Biliverdin and bilifellinic acid 40.00 



Cells, mucus, albumen 260.00 



1000.00 



Dr. Davy found that the ash left after the incineration of a sample of 

 rneconium is of a reddish color, consisting chiefly of peroxide of iron and 

 magnesia, with a trace of phosphate of lime and chloride of sodium. 



During foetal life the liver is therefore discharging the same function 

 that it does after aerial respiration has commenced, that is it does not 

 to say, it secretes bile (meconium) into the intestine ; but at 

 this period, since there is no true digestion, the -bile can products. 

 come from one source alone, and that source is the systemic venous 

 blood. There therefore can remain no doubt that, in after life, the same 

 effect takes place, and that the bile is never derived from materials which 

 have just been brought from the digestive cavities. 



I therefore regard the bile as an excretion of materials which are de- 

 composing and ready to be removed from the system. I in- It comeg from 

 cline to the supposition that much of it is derived from the the venous 

 cells of the blood, the life of which is only temporary, for the blood * 

 casein of the meconium is nothing but the globulin of the cells, the two 

 substances being chemically allied, and the predominance of iron in the 

 ash of meconium seems to establish a connection with hasmatrn. More- 

 over, this opinion is supported by the remarkable stability of many of 

 the nitrogenized coloring, matters, the analogies between hasmatin and 

 chlorophyl, and particularly by the fact that in the herbivora the coloring 

 matter of the bile is undistinguishable from chlorophyl, and in most oth- 

 er tribes closely allied thereto. 



In any discussion of the action of the liver, it is thus to be constantly 

 borne in mind that the portal blood consists of two distinct portions, sys- 

 temic venous blood and matters absorbed from the digestive apparatus. 

 Derived from the first of these portions, we trace the origin of the bile to 

 the waste of the tissues, or to the blood-cells on their downward career ; 

 and hence we arrive at the important conclusion that every proximate 

 constituent of the bile pre-exists in the systemic venous blood. 



Lehmann, inclining to the view that the formation of the bile occurs 

 in the liver itself, quotes the experiments of Miiller and Attempts to de- 

 Kune, who, after tying the portal vein and applying liga- tect cholic acid 

 tures to all the points of attachment of the liver in frogs, ex- mentinthf" 

 tirpated that organ, and collected the blood of those which blood - 

 survived the operation for two or three days, by amputating their thighs. 



