BLOOD, 211 



secretion, or to state with certainty which constituents are 

 drawn from tlie contents of the hepatic artery and which from 

 those of the vena portaj, or how the withdrawal of them is 

 effected. 



These analyses are nevertheless of great importance, since 

 they show that the blood-corpuscles are actively engaged in the 

 secretion of the bile, a view which corresponds with and tends 

 to explain other phenomena connected with this secretion. They 

 show that the blood of the hepatic vein contains more albumen 

 and less globulin, or (which is much the same thing) blood- 

 corpuscles, than that of the vena portse. These differences 

 favour the hypothesis that the corpuscles (or, at least, their 

 principal constituent, the globulin,) have a greater share in the 

 formation of the bile in the peripheral system of the liver than 

 the albumen, the principal constituent of the plasma. 



Another corroborative circumstance is the small amount of 

 colouring matter in the blood of the hepatic vein, from which 

 we infer that some of it has been consumed in the formation of 

 the bile, a view which accounts, with more probability, for the 

 origin of its colour than the supposition that it is produced from 

 a portion of the plasma.^ 



If the liver were supplied '^dth blood from the vena portae 

 alone, there could be hardlv a doubt entertained with ree-ard 

 to the correctness of my hypothesis ; the influence of the blood 

 of the hepatic artery must not, however, be overlooked. If, 

 for instance, the blood of the hepatic artery contained a much 

 larger proportion of albumen and a smaller quantity of blood- 

 corpuscles than the blood of the vena portae, the mixture of 

 these would produce a fluid similar in constitution to the blood 

 of the hepatic vein. But, upon comparing the blood of the 

 vena portse with that of the hepatic artery, no such proportions, 

 as those we have assumed, are observable. It is true that a 

 mixtui'e of the two bloods in a badly fed animal would contain 

 more albumen, but, at the same time, more blood-corpuscles 

 than the blood of the vena portse (see Analyses 3 and 6) ; and 

 in the reverse case (see Analyses 1 and 5) the mixture would 



' [This view is corroborated by Mulder, who observes that if the blood-corpuscles 

 undergo a metamorphic change prior to their developmeut into living tissue, the 

 products of the decomposition of the hamatin may be probably traced in the bili- 

 fuhin of the bile. (Versuch eiuer allgeraeinen physiologischen Chemie, p. 358.)] 



