G2 MANUAL OF CATTLE-FEEDING. 



Lodj, and, in most animals^ stored up in the gall-bladder 

 till it is needed. 



The composition of the bile is very complex, and need 

 not be taken up in detail here. It contains two character- 

 istic coloring matters, bilirubin and Vilme')/ dln^ but its 

 most important and necessary ingredients are compounds 

 of soda with certain organic acids, viz. : glycocJwlic and 

 tauTOcholiCy and in the hog hyoglyGooJioliG acids. The soda 

 of these compounds comes almost entirely from the salt 

 (sodium chloride) of the food, while the same substance 

 furnishes chlorme for the equally necessary muriatic acid 

 of the gastric juice. 



The chief action of the bile is on the fat of the food, 

 A small portion seems to be decomposed by the soda salts 

 of the bile, forming soluble soda salts of the fatty acids 

 (soaps) ; but the main effect is to emulsify the fat, that is, 

 to separate it into minute globules like the butter globules 

 in milk, and to hold these globules suspended, so that the 

 whole forms a thin fluid resembling milk and called an 

 emulsion. This fluid can b)e taken up by the resorbent 

 vessels of the intestines when the latter are wet with bile. 

 Besides its function of digesting the fats, the bile serves 

 to hinder, to some extent, the decay of the easily decom- 

 posable albuminoids. 



"When bile is added to the contents of the stomach in the 

 state in which they enter the intestines, the peptones 

 which they contain, as well as the pepsin, are precipitated 

 and the digestive process is stopped. A further addition 

 of bile, however, redissolves the precipitate, but since the 

 nuiriatic acid of the gastric juice is neuti^alized by the soda 

 of the bile, the action of the pepsin is stopped. In the in- 

 testines, however, the latter is more than replaced by the 

 fennent of the pancreatic juice. 



