160 



tuve which it would have were it immediately raised from water under 

 the pressure which it has acquired by compression or expansion. 

 The only cause of the restoration of vapour to the liquid form is the 

 abstraction of heat from it ; and this cause will be equally operative, 

 whatever may be the state of the vapour with respect to density : but 

 compression alone, without such abstraction of redundant heat, can 

 never convert any portion of vapour into a liquid. In accordance 

 with these views, the author regards the permanent gases as vapours, 

 containing a large quantity of redundant heat. 



A paper was also read, entitled, " On the Secretion and Uses of 

 the Bile." Bv B. Phillips, Esq. Communicated bv W. G. Maton, 

 M.D. V.P.R.S." 



The object of the author of this paper is to establish the three fol- 

 lowing propositions ; viz. 



1°. That the principles of the bile pre-exist in the blood, and that 

 the function of the liver is to separate from the blood a certain pro- 

 portion of this material. 



2°. That bile may be secreted as well from arterial as from venous 

 blood. 



3°. That chyle may be formed in the absence of bile. 



In support of the first proposition the author adduces the analogy 

 of other secretions, the suppression of which is followed by the ap- 

 pearance in the blood of the peculiar animal product which charac- 

 terizes that secretion, as has been proved in the case of the urine by 

 Prevost and Dumas, and afterwards by Vauquelin, Serullas, and Ma- 

 gendie. The author has confirmed the conclusion to which these phy- 

 siologists have arrived, by some experiments of his own, in which, 

 instead of extirpating the kidneys, he contented himself with tying 

 the venal vessels. He relates two cases in which the vena porta? and 

 hepatic artery were tied, and bile was found both in the urine and 

 the blood. 



The author, after quoting several authorities in support of his 

 second proposition, that the liver can secrete bile, although the vena 

 portae be obstructed, relates two experiments which he made on dogs, 

 by tying the vena portae at the part before it arrivts at the transverse 

 fissure of the liver : in both cases that organ continued to secrete 

 bile, though the quantity was small. In another dog, he tied the 

 hepatic artery, with the effect of producing fatal peritonitis, but with- 

 out any apparent change in the biliary secretion. 



The arguments adduced by the author in favour of the opinion that 

 chyle may be formed when no bile is present in the intestine, are de- 

 rived from the accounts given by various authors of cases in which 

 the ductus communis had been rendered impervious by the pressure 

 of neighbouring tumours. In confirmation of this result, he made 

 experiments on four dogs, and found chyle in the thoracic duct after 

 he had tied the ductus communis close. to the duodenum. 



The author concludes, from these and other facts, that the secretion 

 of bile is intended to serve some other purpose than that of contri- 

 buting to the formation of chyle. 



