ON THE ACTION OF MERCURY ON THE BILIARY SECRETION. 189 
to be the quantity secreted daily in the healthy human adult. He likewise 
alludes to an interesting case of a man in whom a biliary fistula was formed 
in consequence of a wound of the gall-bladder. Tacconus, who saw the case, 
estimated the amount of bile discharged by the fistula at 4 0z.; but whether 
the expression ‘‘eodem tempore” refers to six or twenty-four hours, it is 
impossible to say—probably to the former. 
Scuwann*.—It was not till 1844 that any serious attempts were made to 
investigate this subject by Professor Schwann of Louvain. He made several 
interesting experiments, by means of biliary fistula, to ascertain the utility 
of bile in the animal economy. Unfortunately he does not appear to have 
carried out his intention of ascertaining accurately its amount. 
Bronpiort.—In 1846 Blondlot succeeded in establishing a biliary fistula 
in a dog of middle size, in which he gives approximately 40 to 50 grammes 
as the amount of bile secreted in twenty-four hours. His estimate, however, 
was not made with great precision ; for he only collected the fluid for short 
periods at a time, and could not therefore ascertain its exact amount in twenty- 
four hours. 
H. Nassrt.—Heinrich Nasse of Marburg published in 1851 an in- 
teresting memoir giving an account of a series of experiments performed on 
one dog in which a biliary fistula had been established, and which lived 
afterwards five months anda half. His object was to ascertain the influence 
of the quantity and quality of the food on the biliary secretion, As we have 
not succeeded in obtaining the original work, the result of his researches will 
be subsequently tabulated as obtained from the abstract given of them in 
Canstatt$. 
Bipper and Scumipr||.—In 1852, Bidder and Schmidt, in their work on 
the Digestive Fluids, gave an account of the most elaborate experiments yet 
made to determine the amount of the biliary secretion. They succeeded in 
establishing biliary fistula in four dogs. In one dog the daily observations 
extended from Feb. 17th to April 15th, when he was killed. The bile was 
collected by holding a balloon-shaped glass over the fistulous opening for 
fifteen minutes at a time; and this was repeated daily from six to ten times 
successively. The varying amount of biliary secretion obtained at one period 
was corrected by the results obtained at other periods, and the average amount 
calculated from a large number of observations. This method, though 
excellent for determining the amount of the secretion at different periods of 
the digestive process, is, as regards the daily quantity, evidently unsatisfactory. 
Besides, as the dog did not consume the same amount of food under these 
varied circumstances, that might vitiate the result. To simplify the Tables, 
and render calculation easier, they estimated the amount of bile secreted at 
so much per kilogramme weight of dog. Thus, if a dog weighing 5 kilo- 
grammes secreted 100 grammes of bile in twenty-four hours, it would be 
said that 20 grammes of bile were secreted for each kilogramme of dog in 
twenty-four hours. They estimate the average amount of bile per hlogramme 
in twenty-four hours at 19-999. 
The following Table gives the average amount of biliary secretion in the 
four dogs, with the average amount of food per kilogramme taken hourly and 
daily. One kilogramme weight cf dog gives 6 grammes. 
* Miiller’s ‘ Archiv,’ 1844, page 127. 
+ Essai sur les Functions du Foie, 1846. 
{ Commentatio de bilis quotidie a cane secrete copia et indole. Marburg, 1851. 
§ Canstatt’s Jahresbericht, 1856, Ist Heft, p. 87. 
|| Verdauungs-Sifte und der Stoffwechsel, 1852. 
