Scientific Proceedings. 



(249) 79 



cases. He found albumin in 5 out of 6 cases of cloudy swelling 

 of the liver associated with pneumonia, miliary tuberculosis and 

 sepsis; also in some cases of fatty liver, but none in cirrhosis of the 

 liver. Experimentally, in rabbits, he obtained an albuminocholia 

 after intravenous injection of albumose. 



Within the past two years several other investigations on the 

 experimental production of albuminocholia have been described. 

 Brauer 1 in his paper " on the study of the liver," in the Zeitschrift 

 fur physiologische Chemie, reported the presence of albumin in the 

 bile of a dog with a permanent biliary fistula after poisoning with 

 ethyl alcohol and small quantities, 3-5 c.c, of amyl alcohol. At 

 his suggestion Pilzecker 2 carried out a similar study on the bile of 

 dogs with permanent gall bladder fistulas after poisoning with phos- 

 phorus and arsenic. His result seemed to corroborate the work 

 of Brauer. Another interesting statement which both observers 

 made was to the effect that albumin passes more readily into the bile 

 than it does into the urine. In this connection attention was also 

 called to the work of Hallauer and Giirber 3 who, after the intra- 

 venous injection of casein solution into rabbits, recovered consider- 

 able quantities of it from the bile as well as from the urine. 



While not disputing the possibility of albuminocholia under 

 the conditions of the experiments of Brauer and Pilzecker, it seemed 

 to the author they have not proved that the albumin found in the 

 bile was eliminated by the liver. It is just as possible that it was 

 due to inflammation of the gall bladder and biliary passages which 

 they observed on autopsy. To reduce the possibility of error 

 from this source the writer carried out a number of experiments on 

 dogs, each of which was under ether anesthesia, with a temporary 

 biliary fistula. The neck of the gall bladder in each case was 

 ligated previous to the introduction of a cannula into the common 

 bile duct. The bile was collected and tested for albumin according 

 to Brauer's 4 method. Either amyl alcohol or ethyl alcohol alone 

 or a mixture of the two was injected into the stomach or small 

 intestine. Adequate control experiments were also conducted. The 

 collected bile was tested for albumin in both sets of experiments. 



1 Brauer : Loc cit. 



2 Pilzecker: Zeitschrift fur physiologische Chemie 1904, xli, p. 157. 

 •Hallauer and Giirber : Zeitschrift fur Biologie, 1904, xlv, p. 372. 

 * Brauer : Loc. cit. 



