1862.] AND BILE OF THE VERTEBRATA. 133 
of the Society—especially as the subject is one that may be divested 
of all scientific technicality, and may readily be understood by those 
unacquainted with anatomy. 
The first part of my communication (on the Situation, Form, 
and Capacity of the Gall-bladder in the Vertebrata; on its Absence 
in certain Animals ; and on the Colour of the Bile) I make this even- 
ing; the second part (on the Structure of the Gall-bladder; the 
place of Entrance of the Biliary Ducts into the Alimentary Tube; 
the Composition of the Bile, and its Morbid Conditions) I reserve 
for a future occasion. 
As some of my hearers are to a great extent ignorant of anatomy, 
I may premise that the bile, secreted by the largest gland of the 
body, the liver, is poured into the alimentary tube, with that of the 
pancreatic juice, a short distance from the pyloric end of the stomach ; 
that it is conveyed from the liver by small tubes or ducts, which 
vary in number in different animals; that the gall-bladder, a mem- 
branous bag, is a reservoir for the bile, so that a due supply of this 
important fluid is insured when perhaps the secretory action of the 
liver, from causes with which we are unacquainted, is impaired, 
Why certain animals should be supplied with this reservoir, and 
why others whose structure is nearly similar, and whose food is of 
the same kind, should be deprived of it, are questions to be consi- 
dered hereafter. 
In this communication I purpose giving the result chiefly of my 
own dissections, and I shall not allude much to the works of others ; 
for it is only the combination of the deductions of labourers in the 
same field of investigation that will enable us hereafter to draw po- 
sitive inferences. This method is especially necessary in investigating 
the anatomy and physiology of the gall-bladder, as there is probably 
no organ in which so many deviations occur. 
For the purpose of showing the form and size of the gall-bladder, 
I place before the Society a diagram, in which I have sketched this 
viscus in 306 species (so-called) of animals, including 132 mammals, 
99 birds, 43 reptiles, and 32 fishes; and I also place on the table 
the dried and distended gall-bladders of 49 different animals. I may 
likewise state that I have generally taken a sketch of the gall-bladder 
of all the animals I have dissected, and emptied the bile upon white 
paper or into a bottle ; so that by this means I am enabled to exhibit 
the bile of nearly 600 species of animals. Some of this bile has 
been preserved for more than twelve years. I trust that I may be 
pardoned for these allusions, which to some may appear to be too 
egotistical ; but I introduce them for the purpose of showing that I 
have paid much attention to the subject *. 
Situation of the Gall-bladder.—In the vast majority of the Ver- 
tebrata, as in the human species, this organ is placed upon the right 
side of the liver, and, in Mammals, more or less imbedded in its sub- 
* In the present International Exhibition (Class 2, No. 503) is a frame con- 
taining the bile of nearly 600 animals, which I have cut with a gun-punch from 
the papers which I now exhibit, for the purpose of showing the varieties of colour 
of this fluid, and its utility as a pigment when properly prepared, 
