PARALYSIS OF THE LIVER. SECT. XXX. 



parried to the receptacle of the chyle ; or ptherwife 

 the fecretory veffels of the liver, by the above-men- 

 tioned Jlimulus, invert their motions, and regurgi- 

 tate their contents into the blood, as fometime? 

 happens to the tears in the lachrymal fack;, fee Sed. 

 XXIV. 2. 7. and one kind of jaundice is brought on. 



There js reafon to believe, that the bile is moft 

 tfr.equent.lv returned into the circulation by the in<- 

 verted motions of thefe hepatic glands, for the bile 

 does not feem liable 10 be abforbed by the lympha? 

 tics, for it fpaks through the gall-dufts, and is fre r 

 quently found in the cellular membrane. This kincj 

 of jaundice is not generally attended with pain, nei- 

 ther at the extremity of the bile-duel:, where it 

 (enters the duodenum, nor on the region of th 

 gall-bladder^. 



Mr. S. a gentleman between 40 and 50 years of 

 age, had Had the jaundice about fix weeks, without 

 pain, iicknefs, or fever ; and had taken emetics, ca* 

 thartics, mercurials, bitters, chalybeates, eflentiaj 

 oil, and aether, without apparent advantage. On 9. 

 fuppolnion that the oburucltion of the bile might 

 Tpe owing to the paralyfis, or tprpid aclion of the 

 common bile-duel:, and the ft}mulants taken into 

 the ftomach feeming to have no efFed, 1 defired 

 half a fcqre fmart electric (hocks from a coated bot- 

 tle, which held about a fjuart, to be paffed through 

 the liver, and along the cpurfe of the common gall* 

 du(S ? as nea/ as could be gueffed, and on that very 

 day the ftools became yellow ; he continued the elec- 

 trie fhocks a few days more, and hi fldn gradually 

 Became clear. 



3. The bilious vomiting and purging, that affedls 

 fome people by intervals of a few weeks, is a lefs 

 degree of this difeafe ; the bile dud is lefs irritable 

 than natural, and hence the bile becomes accumu- 

 lated in the gall-bladder, and hepatic dufts, till by 

 its quantity, acrimony or vifcidity, a greater degree 

 of irritation is prgduced, and it is fuddenly evacu- 

 ated 



