128 
The Rot in Sheep. 
fibrine is increased, and other no less important changes 
wrought in the blood, there seems no reason to doubt that tliis 
fluid has been both de/mnitcd of materials which would be 
injurious, and assimilated more to the character of ordinary blood. 
Apart from this, fatty matters especially would appear to be 
elaborated within the gland, either from saccharine substances or 
from albuminous compounds ; for even when no fat can be detected 
in the blood of the vena porta; that of the hepatic vein contains 
it in considerable amount " (Carpenter). 
In the recent experiments also of Dr. Harley and Professor 
Sharpey communicated to the Royal Society, it has been shown 
that even when the portal blood is devoid of sugar, as in a fasting 
animal or one fed solely on flesh, sugar is found in the liver, 
having been formed therein. We may here observe that, chemi- 
cally considered, starch, sugar, and lat, are allied substances, 
being all hydro-carbonates, sugar containing a somewhat greater 
quantity of carbon than starch, but less than fat. 
■ The bile, as may be easily supposed from the foregoing pre- 
mises, is a very complex fluid, and has a more important office to 
perform in the assimilation of food than in the carrying away of 
materials which impair the purity of the blood. Entering tlie 
intestine — duodenum — by means of the main biliary duct, it com- 
mingles with the chymous mass — the digested food — as this passes 
from the stomach ; and, assisted by the fluid secreted by the 
pancreas, which is also present in the intestine, effects the chylifi- 
cation of the chyme. The chyle thus formed is absorbed by the 
lacteals, and carried by them into the general circulation. In the 
process of chylification a portion of the bile — the colouring mat- 
ter in particular — as escrementitious material is moved onwards 
with the unassimilated parts of the chymous mass and ejected as 
faeculent matter. That portion of the fluid, however, which is 
employed in effecting chylification, among other things, acts on 
the amylaceous matter — starch of the food — and converts it into 
sugar, ready to be taken up by capillary blood-vessels. The pre- 
sence of bile in the intestine is also said to cause a more free ab- 
sorption in augmented quantities of the fatty matter of the chyme. 
The liver may thus be regarded as the great regulator of the 
amount of sugar and fatty matter in the blood, any excess of 
which, not required to support animal heat, accumulates in the 
various tissues of the body. If this be so, the more active the 
secretory function of the liver, the greater the amount of sugar 
and fat which will be absorbed from the food. 
Now it is to be remembered that irritation simply increases 
the normal secretion of a gland ; but that inflammation, on the 
contrary, alters its character. The entrance of recently deve- 
loped flukes into the biliary ducts, acts for a time, as has been 
