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PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIONS OF DRUGS ON THE SECRETION OF BILE. 169 
STEWART’ observations, and plainly narrow the range of speculation in searching 
for a rational theory of the action of the drug in hepatic congestion. 
These experiments (Nos. 18 to 25), with purely intestinal stimulants, all 
point to one great fact, that ¢ntestinal purgation per se lowers the bile-producing 
function of the liver, and it may therefore be inferred, that when the molecules 
of a substance have the double effect of exciting the liver as well as the intes- 
tinal glands, the former effect has in some measure to contend withthe latter, 
and may indeed be overcome by it, if the purgative effect be rapid and severe. 
This has been already pointed out in Experiment 9, and indeed it may be 
generally observed, that although a substance with this twofold effect 
excites the liver in the early part of the experiment, the secretion of bile soon 
begins to diminish as the substance finds its way down the intestinal canal 
and implicates a greater and greater number of Lieberkiihn’s glands. (See 
Experiments 10, 17.) In the concluding observations an important indication 
for the guidance of the physician will be deduced from this significant fact. 
ACTION OF SCAMMONY. 
The resin of scammony, being insoluble in water, was dissolved in dilute 
alcohol, and some bile was added, in order still further to promote its absorp- 
tion from the alimentary canal. 
Experiment 26. Dog that had fasted eighteen hours. Weight 9°5 kilo- 
grammes.—2°5 cc. bile were 
injected into the duodenum 
(b, fig. 26). This produced 
no notable effect. Twenty 
grains of scammony resin 
dissolved in 3°5 cc. recti- 
fied spirit, 3 cc. water and 
: in. Lig. 26.—Secretion of bile before and after scammony. Bile injected into 
3 cc. bile were then in ~ duodenum at b, and scammony with bile and alcohol at s ands’. (See 
jected (s), and this dose ‘*t) 
was afterwards repeated (s’). There was a slight increase in the biliary 
secretion. 
Necropsy.—There was greatly increased vascularity of the mucous mem- 
brane of the whole length of the small intestine. Vascularity of the gastric 
mucous membrane was also somewhat increased. There was evidence of severe 
purgative action in the whole extent of both the small and large intestine. 
Experiment 26a. Dog that had fasted nineteen hours. Weight 6:8 kilo- 
grammes.—lIn this experiment it was determined to give scammony in smaller 
doses. 1 cc. bile and 2 cc. water were injected into the duodenum at 4, fig. 26a. 
VOL. XXIX. PART I. 2x 
