Concentrating Activity of Gall Bladder. 215 



118 (1578) 



The concentrating activity of the gall bladder. 

 By Peyton Rous and Philip D. McMaster. 



[From the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.] 



In a previous paper we have noted the fact that the fluid 

 which collects in bile ducts experimentally obstructed is an in- 

 spissated, tarry bile when the ducts communicate with the gall- 

 bladder, whereas in ducts unconnected with this viscus the fluid 

 is thin and soon becomes free from pigment and cholates. It has 

 long been recognized that the gall-bladder must have a concentrat- 

 ing function, since bladder bile is more concentrated than duct bile 

 from the same animal; and continued functioning during stasis 

 will explain the tarry bile then found. The inspissation occurs 

 so rapidly as to raise the question whether concentration of the 

 bile in periods of intermittent or partial stasis may not be an 

 important favoring element in the formation of gall-stones. 



To determine the rate of concentration advantage has been 

 taken of the arrangement of the hepatic ducts in the dog. There 

 are three of these, which unite to form a common duct, with the 

 cystic duct emptying high up into the central one. Through 

 an opening near the lower end of this last a catheter was pushed 

 into the neck of the gall-bladder, which was emptied and washed 

 with salt solution; and the duct was ligated after the catheter had 

 been withdrawn. The bile from the middle lobes of the liver had 

 now no way of escape save into the gall-bladder. That from the 

 lobes to either side still reached the common duct, but from this it 

 was collected into a rubber balloon placed in the peritoneal 

 cavity. The laparatomy incision was completely closed. The 

 dogs tolerated the operation well. Control experiments in which a 

 second balloon was substituted for the gall-bladder showed that 

 the separated portions of bile differed little in their pigment 

 content, which was taken as the index to concentration. 



On examination after twenty-four hours the gall-bladder, 

 still undistended, was regularly found to contain only one sixth 

 to one tenth as much fluid as should on calculation have reached 



