CHEMICAL FORMATION OF THE BILE. 415 



which increases with the amount of alkalies, only traces of oxygen, and 

 a very small quantity of nitrogen. 



Little is known in regard to the properties of the bile in disease. The quantity 

 of urea is found to be considerably increased in uraemia. Leucine and tyrosine are 

 observed in acute yellow atrophy of the liver and in typhoid. Traces of albumin 

 (without regard to nucleoalbumin) have several times been found in the human 

 bile. The so-called pigmentary acholia, or the secretion of a bile containing 

 bile-acids but no bile-pigments, has also been repeatedly noticed. In all such 

 cases observed by RITTER he found a fatty degeneration of the liver-cells, in return 

 for which, even in excessive fatty infiltration, a normal bile containing pigments 

 was secreted. The secretion of a bile nearly free from bile-acids has been 

 observed by HOPPE-SEYLER * in amyloid degeneration of the liver. In animals, 

 dogs, and especially rabbits, it has been observed that the blood-pigments pass 

 into the bile in poisoning and in other conditions, causing a destruction of the 

 blood-corpuscles, as also after intravenous haemoglobin injection (WERTHEIMER 

 and MEYER, FILEHNE, STERN 2 ). Albumin can pass into the bile after the intra- 

 venous injection ot a foreign protein (casein) (GURBER and HALLAUER), as well 

 as after poisoning w r ith phosphorus or arsenic (PILZECKER), or after the irrita- 

 tion of the liver by the introduction of ethyl alcohol or amyl alcohol (BRAUER) . 

 Sugar occurs in bile only in exceptional cases. 3 



The physiological secretion of the gall-bladder in man is, according 

 to WAHLGREN, 4 a viscous, alkaline fluid with 11.24-19.63 p. m. solids. 

 The mucilaginous properties are not due to mucin, but to a phosphorized 

 protein substance (nucleoalbumin or nucleoprotein) . 



Instead of bile there is sometimes found in the gall-bladder under pathological 

 conditions a more or less viscous, thready, colorless fluid which contains pseudo- 

 mucins or other peculiar protein substances. 5 



Chemical Formation of the Bile. The first question to be answered 

 is the following: Do the specific constituents of the bile, the bile-acids 

 and bile pigments originate in the liver; and if this is the case, do they 

 come from this organ alone, or are they also formed elsewhere? 



The investigations of the blood, and especially the comparative 

 investigations of the blood of the portal and hepatic veins under normal 

 conditions, have not given any answer to this question. To decide this, 

 therefore, it is necessary to extirpate the liver of animals or to isolate 

 it from the circulation. If the bile constituents are not formed in the 

 liver, or at least not alone in this organ, but are eliminated only from 

 the blood, then, after the extirpation or removal of the liver from the 



1 Ritter, Compt. rend., 74, and Journ. de 1'anat. et de la physiol. (Robin), 1872; 

 Hoppe-Seyler, Physiol. Chem., 317. 



2 Wertheimer and Meyer, Compt. rend., 108; Filehne, Virchow's Arch., 121; Stern, 

 ibid-, 123. 



3 Curber and Hallauer, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 45; Pilzecker, Zeitschr. f. physiol. 

 Chem., 41; Brauer, ibid., 40. 



4 See Maly's Jahresber., 32. 



5 Winternitz, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 21; Sollmann, Amer. Medicine, 5 (1903). 



