USES OF THE BILE. 557 



stance, soluble in ether, but insoluble in water, called dy sly sin. These 

 decompositions, due, anatomically, to loss of certain atoms of water, 

 are shown below : 



Cholalic acid, C< 4 H 40 O 5 



Choloidinic acid, and 1 water, .... C H H 3fe O 4 + H 2 O 

 Dyslysin, and 2 water, C, 4 H 36 O 3 + H 4 O 2 



Similar decompositions appear to occur in the living body ; for, in 

 the small intestine, the acids of the bile are set free from their soda 

 salts, by the hydrochloric and other acids in the chyme. At the com- 

 mencement of the ileum, they are already half decomposed, and par- 

 tially absorbed; at the end of the ileum, they are wholly decomposed; 

 whilst, in the contents of the large intestine, only dyslysin is present. 



[Dr. Samuel Fenwick, in his recent volume on Morbid States of the 

 Stomach and Duodenum, says, that whatever effects the secretion of 

 the pancreas may have upon fat, "it is not the only, nor indeed the 

 chief agent in fitting it for absorption." This view is based upon the 

 experiments of Bidder and Schmidt, who tied the pancreatic duct in 

 animals afterwards fed with food containing fat, and found, some hours 

 after the animals were killed, the lacteals distended with white chyle, 

 exactly as in the ordinary process of digestion. Dr. Fenwick further 

 states, "there can be little doubt that the bile is the chief agent in the 

 digestion of fat." The fact that when fat is digested with bile at 100, 

 even for many hours, only a small quantity is dissolved, is not consid- 

 ered by him a valid objection, for the experiments of Bidder and Schmidt 

 upon living animals give a different result. They fed a healthy dog 

 with a carefully ascertained amount of fat. By examination of its 

 feces, it was found to have absorbed 11.1 grammes for each kilo- 

 gramme of its weight. Another dog, in which a biliary fistula had 

 been established, was similarly fed, the animal was allowed to lick 

 some of the bile from the wound, and it was proved that but 2.24 

 grammes of fat had been absorbed for each kilogramme of weight. In 

 a third, in which all access of bile to the intestine had been cut off, 

 only 1.56 gramme was absorbed. Dr. Fenwick considers it evident, 

 from these facts, that the bile is the main agent by which the absorp- 

 tion of fatty matters is promoted. 



Further evidence is also afforded, according to the same author, by 

 the condition of dogs in which biliary fistulae have been produced. 

 They are found, invariably, to lose weight rapidly, and the appetite 

 becomes voracious ; nature, by demanding an excessive supply of nu- 

 triment attempting to compensate for the waste of food caused by the 

 diminution of fat. 



Wistinghausen's recent experiments are also quoted with the same 

 view. This experimenter has shown that oil will rise many times higher 

 in a capillary tube wet with a solution of glycocholate and taurocholate 

 of soda than in a similar tube moistened with water; also that it passes 

 through animal membranes more rapidly when moistened with bile, 

 than with water. F. G. S.] 



