136 | PROFESSOR RUTHERFORD ON THE 
. the fistulous opening into the gall-bladder, through which all the bile is necés- 
sarily discharged, a cannula is placed in the fistulous opening, and the bile 
collected either in a bag attached to the cannula, or in a large sponge placed 
in a tin box and secured to the abdomen of the animal. The difficulty of per- 
fectly collecting the bile continuously by day and night, while allowing of such 
freedom of movement on the part of the animal as is necessary for the main- 
tenance of its health, is so serious that few investigators have succeeded in 
accomplishing the task. By this method NassE (1852, Op. i.) KOLLIKER and 
Miter (1855, Op. ii.), and Scotr (Op. iv.), severally made observa- 
tions on a single dog with reference to the effect of calomel on the biliary 
secretion, and the results of their experiments will be detailed under the action 
of mercury. Being in some measure contradictory, the subject was in 1866 
taken up by a committee, of which the late Professor Hugues BENNETT was 
chairman and reporter. Professor ARTHUR GAMGEE and the author were the — 
two junior members of the committee upon whom devolved the task of per- 
forming the experiments. The investigation was laborious, and lasted two 
years. Very great difficulty was experienced in making a constant collection 
of the bile extending over a number of days, and it was repeatedly observed, 
that although the animals were kept on a fixed diet, remarkable variations 
took place in the amount of bile secreted daily, when no cause could be 
assigned. | . 
This circumstance rendered the method of experiment one from which it 
was difficult to arrive at just conclusions ; nevertheless the experiments seemed 
to warrant the statement that ‘ spontaneous diarrhoea, dysentery, and purga- 
tion produced by pilula hydrargyri, calomel, corrosive sublimate, and podo- 
phyllin diminished the solid constituents of bile, and, with one exception, the 
fluid portion of the bile also ” (“ British Association Reports,” 1868, p. 229). 
These are indeed meagre results, considering the great labour which their 
attainment entailed, and it must be admitted that they were to some extent — 
misleading; not because of any inaccuracy of observation, but because the method — 
of experiment was not adapted to supply, at brief successive periods of time, 
information regarding the state of the secretion of bile. On that account it 
failed to show that in the case of such a substance as podophyllin—which 
certainly increases the biliary secretion, but which also stimulates the intestinal 
elands,—if too large a dose be given, the effect on the liver may be overcome 
by its effect on the intestine, and a diminished secretion of bile result. (See 
Experiment 9 in the sequel.) ? 
In 1873 Rourie (Op. vi.) reopened the investigation of this subject. He 
observed the rate of biliary flow from temporary fistulee in fasting curarised dogs 
before and after the injection of purgative agents into the stomach or intestine, 
He found that large doses of croton oil greatly increased the secretion of bile, 
