192 



THE BILE. 



From this it appears that the bile passes into the intestine in by 

 far the largest quantity immediately after feeding, and within the 

 first hour. After that time its discharge remains pretty constant ; 

 not varying much from four grains of solid biliary matters every 

 fifteen minutes, or sixteen grains per hour. The animal used for 

 the above observations weighed thirty-six and a half pounds. 



The next point to be ascertained with regard to this question is 

 the following, viz : What becomes of the bile in its passage through 

 the intestine ? Our experiments, performed with a view of settling 

 this point, were tried on dogs. The animals were fed with fresh 

 meat, and then killed at various intervals after the meals, the abdo- 

 men opened, ligatures placed upon the intestine at various points, 

 and the contents of its upper, middle, and lower portions collected 

 and examined separately. The results thus obtained show that, 

 under ordinary circumstances, the bile, which is quite abundant in 

 the duodenum and upper part of the small intestine, diminishes in 

 quantity from above downward, and is not to be found in the large 

 intestine. The entire quantity of the intestinal contents also dimi- 

 nishes, and their consistency increases, as we approach the ileo- 

 ca3cal valve ; and at the same time their color changes from a light 

 yellow to a dark bronze or blackish-green, which is always strongly 

 pronounced in the last quarter of the small intestine. 



The contents of the small and large intestine were furthermore 

 evaporated to dryness, extracted with absolute alcohol, and the 

 alcoholic solutions precipitated with ether ; the quantity of ether- 

 precipitate being regarded as representing approximately that of 

 the biliary substances proper. The result showed that the quantity 

 of this ether-precipitate is, both positively and relatively, very much 

 less in the large intestine than in the small. Its proportion to the 

 entire solid contents is only one-fifth or one-sixth as great in the 



