Anatomy and Physiology. 67 



and of walls to the capillaries, facts which are palpable to 

 every one familiar with microscopic observations. 



2. — Experiments on the share taken by the bile in the vital 

 economy. By Schwann. 



Professor Schwann arrives at the following conclusions : — 



1. The bile is not a purely excrementitial substance; after 

 its secretion it plays a part essential to life. 



2. The bile is quite as indispensable for young as for adult 

 animals. The former seem to be still less capable of doing 

 without it than the latter. 



3. If the bile does not reach the intestine, its absence 

 shews itself in dogs, commonly from the third day in a dimi- 

 nution of their weight. Death occurs in adult dogs usually 

 in two or three weeks, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. 



4. Death is preceded by symptoms of imperfect nourish- 

 ment, great leanness, muscular debility, loss of hair ; at the 

 close, these are slight convulsions. 



5. The bile which in the normal state reaches the duode- 

 num, cannot be replaced by the bile which dogs lick, and 

 which may, in that way, reach the stomach. 



6. The bile when swallowed, does not disturb the digestion 

 in the stomach, it does not exercise any influence whether 

 favourable or injurious on the nutrition of the animal.* 



M. Schwann is continuing his experiments, and proposes 

 to determine the part which it plays in the digestion of ali- 

 ments. We may add that the dogs who have survived the 

 separation of the ductus choledocus, and who have been 

 afterwards killed, have ail shewn its reproduction ; this re- 

 production always takes place if the fistula closes without 

 there being any symptoms of jaundice. 



* Yet a good deal lias lately been written about the mrrlicinal virtues of 

 ox gall.— Tr. 



