VOL. LXXXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 297 



in length, and J- inch in breadth. On opening the bladder, we found in it 

 about i a tea-spoon full of bile ; in colour it resembled the bile of children, 

 being of a deep yellow brown ; it also tasted like bile ; it was bitter, but 

 not so acridly or nauseously bitter as common bile. I diluted a small quantity 

 of this fluid with water, and with this liquor moistened some paper which 

 had been tinged with a vegetable blue; this was instantly changed into a 

 deep green ; consequently this fluid, like common bile, abounded with alkali. 

 I added some diluted nitrous acid to a small quantity of this, and of com- 

 mon bile ; they both became changed, by this addition, to a similar green 

 colour. The colouring matter of the bile therefore appears to have possessed its 

 common properties. The gall ducts had been divided, in removing the stomach 

 and duodenum, before the uncommon termination of the vena portarum was dis- 

 covered, and some bile had flowed from the divided ducts. 



The intestines did not contain much alimentary or foecal matter ; this was how- 

 ever, as usual, deeply tinged with bile. The spleen consisted of 7 separate por- 

 tions, to each of which a branch of the splenic artery was distributed. The other 

 viscera were sound, and of their usual structure and appearance. No cause could 

 be discovered to which the child's death could be assigned. We observed that 

 the tongue was incrusted with a dark coloured mucus, which indicated the exist- 

 ence of fever previous to the infant's death. 



When an anatomist contemplates the performance of biliary secretion by a 

 vein, a circumstance so contrary to the general economy of the body, he naturally 

 concludes, that bile cannot be prepared unless from venal blood ; and he also in- 

 fers, that the equal and undisturbed current of blood in the veins is favourable to 

 the secretion; but the circumstances of the present case, in which bile was secreted 

 by an artery, prove the fallacy of this reasoning. I extremely regret that only 

 so small a quantity of this bile could be collected from the gall bladder ; as surely 

 it was very desirable to ascertain more fully how far the qualities of this curiously 

 prepared fluid resembled common bile. That the fluid secreted by the liver was 

 not, in this case, deficient in quantity, appears to me sufliciently evident. If the 

 gall bladder had not suffered occasional repletion, I think it would have been 

 found in a state of greater contraction. Some bile had escaped from the divided 

 gall ducts, and a considerable quantity of this fluid would be required to give so 

 deep a tint, as in this case was visible, to the alimentary matter. I cannot there- 

 fore but suppose, that the empty state of the gall bladder was the effect of acci- 

 dent, and not of deficient secretion by the liver. The bulk and well nourished 

 state of the body do I think demonstrate, that there was no defect in the func- 

 tions of the chylopoetic organs. But it will surely be inquired, from what cause 

 the death of the child originated. It may be suspected that the mal-formation of 

 the liver contributed to its decease ; and particularly as no derangement of any 



VOL. XVII. Q Q 



