ON THE ACTION OF MERCURY ON THE BILIARY SECRETION. 193 
fistulee, in consequence of the increased diet they require, no conclusion can 
be drawn as to the quantity of bile likely to be secreted in healthy dogs 
in proportion to the amount of food they take. 4. The quantity of bile 
secreted in proportion to the weight of the animal is estimated too highly 
by Bidder and Schmidt, and also by Nasse; because all animals with 
biliary fistula require much more than their ordinary food to keep up their 
usual weight, while the quantity of diet influences the amount of. bile 
secreted. 5. Besides food, the drinking of water considerably increases the 
secretion of bile. 6. The nature of the food does not much influence the 
solid constituents of bile. Arnold admits, however, that in this respect 
Nasse’s observations may be more accurate than his own. 7. The secretion 
of bile, apart from the influence that it exerts on the absorption of fat, plays 
an important part in the process of nutrition. 8. In Arnold’s dog the biliary 
secretion was most copious during the first hours after taking food. After 
the fourth hour it began to diminish until the twenty-fourth hour, when it 
was least, but the diminution was not regular. His manner of collecting it, 
however, like that of Bidder and Schmidt, is objectionable, viz. at varying 
periods of fifteen’ minutes, half an hour, and an hour. Instead, therefore, of 
determining how much bile flowed in twenty-four hours, this was made to 
appear by multiplying so many times the half-hour or hour collections. 
Korrixer and Mitrer* made some experiments on the bile during the years 
1853 and 1854, of which they published an account in the Wurzburg Ab- 
handlungen for 1855. They succeeded in establishing biliary fistule in 
three dogs. For one kilogramme of dog, they found in twenty-four hours— 
Hours after food. | Fresh bile. | Dry residue. No. of observations. 
lto 2 1450 | 0-051 8 
3to 5 1-407 0:047 5 
6to 8 1-514 0-048 8 
16 to 22 1320 0-051 7 
Another dog gave the largest quantity four to five hours after feeding, 
and least after nineteen to twenty-one hours. A third dog gave the 
maximum five to six hours after a meal, and not much less after sixteen or 
seventeen hours. They found, as other observers had done, that the quantity 
of food consumed has a decided influence on the quantity of the biliary 
secretion. When, for example, a dog ate 181 ounces of flesh in twenty-four 
hours, the bile collected amounted from 5-3 to 6°6 grammes in an hour, but 
when it ate 332 ounces of flesh, it was increased from 7-5 to 7-8 grammes. 
It is important to observe that the calculations of Kélliker and Miiller, like 
those of Bidder and Schmidt, were derived from collections of bile made 
during a quarter of an hour, half an hour, and occasionally one hour, and 
the amount per day was estimated from the averages of these. In no case 
Was it collected continuously for twenty-four hours. 
Scorr +.—Dr. Scott appears to have been the first who collected all the bile 
secreted by a dog during twenty-four consecutive hours. We must refer to his 
paper for a description of the method he adopted for collecting it, and for the 
account he gives of his interesting and carefully conducted experiments and 
analyses. He avoided the error liable to occur in calculating the amount of 
bile secreted in twenty-four hours from quantities obtained during a part only 
of that period. He estimated the amount of fresh bile given off in twenty- 
four hours at about 23-15 grammes; of dried residue at 1:13 per kilogramme. 
te Abhandlungen fiir 1855, Band Y. t Beale’s ‘ Archives,’ vol. i. 
58. P 
