1862.] AND BILE OF THE VERTEBRATA. 133 



of the Society — especially as the suhjcct is one that may he divested 

 of all scientific technicahty, 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 difi"erent 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. 



