BILE SECRETION. 415 



In starvation the secretion diminishes. According to LUKJANOW 

 and ALBERTONi, 1 under these conditions the absolute quantity of solids 

 decreases, while ' the relative quantity increases. After partaking of 

 food the secretion increases again. The findings are very contradictory 

 in regard to the time necessary, after partaking of food, before the 

 secretion reaches its maximum. After a careful examination and com- 

 pilation of all the existing reports, HEiDENHAiN 2 has come to the con- 

 clusion that in dogs the curve of rapidity of secretion shows two maxima, 

 the first at the third to fifth hour and the second at the thirteenth to 

 fifteenth hour after .partaking of food. According to BARBERA the 

 time when the maximum occurs is dependent upon the kind of food. 

 With carbohydrate food it is two to three hours, after protein food three 

 to four hours, and with fat diet it is five to seven hours, after feeding. 

 According to LoEB 3 the maximum occurs in dogs one to two hours after 

 feeding with meat, casein or gliadin. 



According to earlier observations, the proteins of all the various 

 foods cause the greatest secretion of bile, while the carbohydrates dimin- 

 ish the secretion, or at least excite it much less than the proteins. This 

 coincides with the recent observations of BARBERA. The authorities 

 by no means agree as to the action of the fats. While many older 

 investigators have not observed any increase, but rather the reverse 

 in the secretion of bile after feeding with fats, the researches of BARBARA 

 show an undoubted increase in the secretion of bile on fat feeding, greater 

 even than after carbohydrate feeding. According to ROSENBERG olive- 

 oil is a strong cholagogue, a statement which, according to other inves- 

 tigators MANDELSTAMM, DOYON and DUFOURT ! has not been proved. 



As BARBERA has shown, a close relation exists between the bile 

 secretion and the quantity cf urea formed, as an increase in the first 

 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 



1 Lukjanow, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 16; Albertoni, Recherches sur la se*cre*tion 

 biliaire, Turin, 1893. 



2 Hermann's Handb., 5, and Stadelmann, Der Icterus, etc. 



3 Barbara, Centralbl. f. Physiol., 12 and 16; A. Loeb, Zeitschr. f. Biol., 55. 



4 Barbera, Bull, della scienz. med. di Bologna (7), 5, Maly's Jahresber., 24, and 

 Centralbl. f. Physiol., 12 and 16; Rosenberg, Pfliiger's Arch., 46; Mandelstamm, Ueber 

 den Einfluss einiger Arzneimittel auf Sekretion und Zusammensetzung der Galle (Dis- 

 sert. Dorpat, 1890); Doyon and Dufourt, Arch, de Physiol. (5), 9. In regard to the 

 action of various foods on the secretion of bile see also Heidenhain, 1. c.; Stadelmann, 

 Der Icterus; and Barbera, 1. c. 



