338 DR ALISON’S OBSERVATIONS ON 
so the Bile from the liver, likewise reabsorbed as it passes down the prime vie, 
furnishes to the blood a pretty constant supply of matter fit for calorific combina- 
tion with oxygen, out of the occasional ingesta. 
The proofs of this proposition, and its importance, appear from the following 
facts, ascertained by these authors. 1. That by far the greater part of the amy- 
laceous matter taken into the stomach, is converted into soluble matter (dextrine 
and sugar) in the primee vise, and these must necessarily be absorbed by the 
veins, and of course carried to the vena portze and liver. From thence a part of 
this matter, no doubt, will pass immediately by the venze cavee hepatice to the 
right side of the heart and lungs, and come immediately into contact with the 
oxygen ; but a part, meeting a portion of effete animal matter in the venous blood 
will aid in the formation of bile in this way : 
C N H 0) 
4 equivalents of starch 48 ane, oS 40 
Add 1 of ammonia vee 1 3 
Subtract elements of choleic acid 38 1 33 inl 

10 = Ad 29 
requiring only one part of oxygen to pass into 10 CO, + 10 HO, carbonic acid 
and water; which accounts for the great quantity of bile secreted by herbivorous 
animals; and accounts likewise for the secretion of bile being chiefly from venous 
blood, inasmuch as very little oxygen is required for its formation, and its chief 
pabulum has been recently absorbed by the veins. In so far as bile is formed 
from fat, it must be by help of more oxygen, and, therefore, probably from 
arterial blood. 
2. That of the bile formed and discharged into the intestines, the greater part, 
even in the herbivora, and almost the whole in the carnivora, is reabsorbed into 
the blood, and decomposed in the process, the pure bile appearing distinctly in 
the feeces almost exclusively in the case either of diarrhoea, or of the operation of 
cathartics. When to these facts we add these considerations, that biliary matter 
retained in the blood, as in one form of jaundice, acts as a poison, and that it 
cannot be of use in the nutrition of the textures, which is provided for by the 
albuminous contents of the blood, we can hardly doubt that it is reabsorbed into 
the blood, only that it (or its elements) may unite with oxygen, and be thrown 
off as carbonic acid and water, with a little urea; and therefore, that the liver 
is an appendage to the digestive organs, destined for the proper disposal of the 
calorific, rather than the nutritious portions of the food, and for the necessary 
separation of these two; and that the circulation of the matter destined to this 
