648 ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
are alkaline ; and the first chemical change effected is neces- 
sarily that of neutralization. 
To the pancreatic juice has lately been given emulsive pro- 
perties ; its use, therefore, is to combine with and render solu- 
ble the fatty matters of the food. This view, however, is not 
concurred in by Dr. Bence Jones and others, who consider the 
pancreas as supplementary to the salivary glands, as taught bv 
Lassaigne, and its secretion for the purpose of effecting the full 
change of the starchy matters into sugar, which does not take 
place in the mouth. The pancreatic fluid has been found to 
vary in the amount secreted, and the flow to be intermittent. 
In the ruminantia it is greatest after rumination. Two pints 
were collected from a cow in an hour. M. Colin, Professor of 
Anatomy and Physiolgy in the Veterinary School at Alfort, 
has found that in the horse it is not so abundant as in the ox. 
In the pig it amounts to about one-fifth of that of the horse. In 
the sheep it is thick and very rich in albumen, readily forming 
an emulsion with fatty matters. This secretion, he adds, pre- 
sents certain peculiarities in each animal that has been exa- 
mined by him. 
The uses of the biliary secretion are, perhaps, not more 
satisfactorily defined than those of the pancreatic. Some 
physiologists consider it to be the principal solvent of the 
albuminous parts of the food. Bernard has ascertained that 
sugar is taken up and carried directly to the liver ; and in the 
bile, by means of the ordinary tests, this principle has been 
demonstrated by him to exist. This being the case, it is fair to 
infer that alcoholic fluids, and the allied substances, are simi- 
larly determined, and then we can easily account for the pecu- 
liar condition of liver called “ drunkard’s liver.” 
That the removal of bile from out of the body is of consider- 
able importance is unquestionable, since by its withdrawal the 
blood becomes depurated. It is formed from the effete nitro- 
genized tissues, and is often found very complex in its nature. 
Tiedemann and Gmelin enumerate no less than twenty-three 
different substances met with by them in ox gall. How many 
of these were formed by the processes of analyzation resorted 
to, being products rather than educts, possibly cannot be told. 
But this complicity will not so much surprise us if we view the 
liver as an excretory as well as a secretory organ. It aids in 
the elimination of carbon and hydrogen from the system. These 
elements are naturally given off from the lungs in the form of 
carbonic acid gas and watery vapour ; but if the lungs from 
disease are unable to perform their healthy office, the liver is 
then called into increased action, and, having more than its 
ordinary duty to perform, this organ, too, becomes implicated. 
