188 REPORT—1868. 
the gall-bladder, was the only means open to them of determining how far 
mercury influenced that secretion. 
History. 
It next became necessary to ascertain what had been made out by previous 
observers as to the amount of bile secreted by the liver, under varied cir- 
cumstances, through biliary fistule. For literary researches into this matter, 
the Committee are greatly indebted to Dr. Rogers. He informs the Com- 
mittee, in his report on this branch of the inquiry, that efforts to establish 
biliary fistule and to collect the bile haye been attended with extreme 
difficulty in the hands of all experimenters, and have led to a large mortality 
among the animals operated on. Of 18 dogs operated on for this purpose by 
Professor Schwann of Louvain, 10 died within a week after the operation, 
from its immediate effects ; six in from eight to eighty days from inanition, 
although the appetite remained good. In 2, the choledic diet was rees- 
tablished. Some years afterwards he operated on 12 other dogs, so that 
the total number operated on amounted to 30; and Bidder and Schmidt 
inform us that of these one lived four months, and another a whole year, 
after the operation. The last-mentioned authors say*, “ We shall not take 
into account the unsuccessful cases, of which the number at the commence- 
ment of our investigation of this subject was not very small.” Again, they 
say, “After ten or twelve unsuccessful attempts to establish permanent 
biliary fistule in cats, we were obliged to have recourse to dogs.” Dr. Flint, 
in his paper on a New Function of the Liver, does not mention the number 
of dogs on which he performed the operation; but it is evident that a great 
number perished. He says, ‘ All the experiments made during the winter 
1860-61 were unsuccessful, no animal surviving the operation more than 
three days.” After a number of trials during the following winter, which 
were not more successful than the previous ones, he succeeded at last with 
one animal, There is every reason to believe that, had other experimenters 
informed us of theirfailures, the number of these would have been equally great. 
In the few cases which have succeeded, however, it is important to remember 
that a large amount of valuable information regarding the bile has been ob- 
tained that never would have been arrived at without them. 
The operation performed by physiologists on animals in order to establish 
biliary fistulae has, with a few modifications, been essentially the same, and 
will be subsequently described when detailing the experiments of the Com- 
mittee. 
The results arrived at may be divided into:—1, the amount of the 
biliary secretion in health, and the circumstances which influence it; 2, the 
special effect of mercury on the secretion of bile. 
1. Previous Researches to determine the amount of Bile Secreted in Dogs, 
and the Circumstances which influence it. 
Hatrrtert.—In Haller’s ‘ Physiology,’ reference is given to several cases in 
which attempts had been made to ascertain the quantity of bile secreted in a 
given time by experiments on living dogs. The description of them, however, 
is so very vague and general that they possess little interest for the phy- 
siologists of the present day. Van Reverhord found the quantity of bile se- 
ereted by a dog in twenty-four hours to be 6 oz.; and Haller, estimating the 
secretion in the human subject at four times that in the dog, suggested 24 oz. 
* Verdauungs-Sifte und der Stoffwechsel, 1852, page 125. 
+ Physiologia, tom. vi. page 605. 
= ed 
