394 THE LIVER. 



goes hand in hand with an increase of the latter. The bile is, therefore, 

 according to him, a product of disassimilation, whose quantity rises and 

 falls with the degree of activity of the liver. 



The question whether there exists special medicinal bodies, so-called 

 cholagogues, which have a specific excitant action on the secretion of 

 bile, has been answered in very different ways. Many, especially the 

 older investigators, have observed an increase in the bile secretion after 

 the use of certain therapeutic agents, such as calomel, rhubarb, jalap, 

 turpentine, olive-oil, etc.; while others, especially the more recent inves- 

 tigators, have arrived at quite opposite results. From all appearances 

 this contradiction is due to the great irregularity of the normal secretion, 

 which might readily cause mistakes in tests with therapeutic agents. 



SCHIFF'S view, that the bile absorbed from the intestinal canal increases 

 the secretion of bile and hence acts as a cholagogue, seems to be a pos- 

 itively proven fact by the investigations of several experimenters. 1 

 Sodium salicylate is also perhaps a cholagogue (STADELMANN, DOYON 



and DUFOURT, WlNOGRADOW 2 ). 



Acids, and especially, under normal conditions, hydrochloric acid, 

 seem to be physiological excitants for bile secretion. According to FAL- 

 LOISE and FLEIG the acids act upon the duodenum and the upper part 

 of the jejunum, and the action is brought about by a secretin formation 

 similar to the action of acids upon the secretion of pancreatic juice (see 

 Chapter IX) . According to FALLOISE 3 chloral hydrate introduced 

 into the duodenum causes a secretion of bile in an analogous manner, by 

 the aid of a special chloral secretin. 



The bile is a mixture of the secretion of the liver-cells and the so- 

 called mucus which is secreted by the glands of the biliary passages 

 and by the mucus membrane of the gall-bladder. The secretion of the 

 liver, which is generally poorer in solids than the bile from the gall- 

 bladder, is thin and clear, while the bile collected in the gall-bladder 

 is more ropy and viscous on account of the absorption of water and the 

 admixture of " mucus," and cloudy because of the presence of cells, 

 pigments, and the like. The specific gravity of the bile from the gall- 

 bladder varies considerably, being in man between 1.010 and 1.040. 

 Its reaction is alkaline to litmus. The color changes in different animals : 

 golden yellow, yellowish brown, olive-brown, brownish green, grass-green 



1 Schiff, Pfliiger's Arch., 3. See Stadelmann, Der Icterus, and the dissertations of 

 his pupils, especially Winteler, " Experimentelle Beitrage zur Frage des Kreislaufes 

 der Galle " (Inaug.-Diss. Dorpat, 1892), and Gartner, " Experimentelle Beitrage zur 

 Physiol. und Path, der Gallensekretion " (Inaug.- Dis. Jurjew, 1893); also Stadelmann^ 

 " Ueber den Kreislauf der Galle," Zeitschr. f . Biologic, 34. 



2 Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1908. See also foot-note 5, page 393. 



3 Falloise, Bull. Acad. Roy. de Belg., 1903; Fleig, ibid., 1903. 



