PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIONS OF DRUGS ON THE SECRETION OF BILE. 249 
mode of administering a substance for the purpose of acting on the liver was 
faulty, and its results are not fairly comparable with those of the ordinary 
method, where the substance is placed in the alimentary canal, from which its 
molecules are absorbed into the radicles of the portal vein, and so pass to the 
liver in a much more concentrated stream than they possibly can when the 
substance passes first into the general and then into the portal circulation. 
With regard to these two experiments, Huncrs BenneTT stated in the report 
(Op. v. p. 221) “that corrosive sublimate when given” [subcutaneously] “in 
small doses, gradually increased in strength, does not augment the biliary 
secretion, but that it diminishes it the moment the dose reaches a strength 
sufficient to deteriorate the general health.” The latter part of the statement 
was warranted by the results of both experiments. But the first part, though 
true as regards one of the experiments, was certainly untrue as regards the other 
(Op. cit. p. 212, Table XIII.), where an unequivocal increase of bile-secretion 
took place when the dose of mercuric chloride, given subcutaneously, was raised 
from one-sixth grain once a day to one-sixth grain twice a day (oc. cit. June 9th 
and 10th). The reporter of the experiments on that occasion overlooked the 
important fact here stated, and deduced the above general conclusion from 
misleading results, arrived at by taking the daily average quantity of bile 
secreted during too prolonged a period. 
Resulis of Experiments with Calomel._—-With regard to calomel, we have 
proved the following :—(1) That calomel in doses of 10 grains, 5 grains, or 2 
grains, several times repeated, when placed, without bile, in the duodenum of a 
fasting dog, produces a purgative effect, varying with the dose; but, so far from 
increasing the secretion of the bile, usually diminishes it, just as happens when 
any other substance that is not a hepatic stimulant—e.g. magnesium sulphate—- 
is administered. (2) That when calomel is mixed with bile, and then introduced 
into the duodenum, there is no difference in the result, even when, as in Experi- 
ment 76A, the calomel is given in 1 grain doses several times repeated, and the 
chance of acting on the liver, previous to supervention of the depressing effect 
of purgation, thus allowed. (3) That if 5 grains of calomel be subjected at 
100° Fahr. for seventeen hours to the action of dilute hydrochloric acid, of the 
same strength as that of the human gastric juice, not more than =; grain of 
mercuric chloride is produced. 
The question now arises, seeing that calomel does not usually remain in the 
human stomach for more than a night, probably not more than from five to six 
hours, is it likely that even so much as 3; grain of mercuric chloride is pro- 
duced from the ordinary dose of 5 grains, and if it is, what effect may it be 
supposed to have on the human liver? It must be borne in mind, however, 
that we are here on dangerous ground, for we are inclining to reason about the 
action of the gastric juice itself from experiments on the action of dilute hydro- 
VOL. XXIX. PART I. 38 
