430 
THE LIVER AND ITS SECRETIONS. 
vein was varicose for a considerable time, from the fact of the 
fibrin having become semi-organized. 
I made a very minute examination of the body, but could 
not discover any other tumours. 
ON THE LIVER AND ITS SECRETIONS. 
By Percy Smale, V.S., Leamington. 
That the bile is not excrementitious I think may be proved 
from its composition in regard to the oxygen it contains ; for 
I believe it to be a fact, that the higher an organic substance 
is removed by assimilation from its inorganic elements the 
less oxygen it possesses ; while in disintegration the nearer it 
approaches to them the more oxygen is found in its compo- 
sition. I find by Liebig that the bile contains, in proportion 
to the carbon and hydrogen of its composition, considerably 
less oxygen than blood, as shown by the formulae : 
Bile C 76 . IT 66 . N 2 . 0 22 . 196 1 Eqs. of oxygen required 
Blood Qjg. H 39 . N 6 . G j5 . 120 j to reduce to C0 2 and HO. 
Now in creatine, which I believe has been only very lately 
proved to be purely excrementitious, the reverse is the case, 
viz. Creatine C g . H 9 . N 3 . 0 4 . 
Blood H 39 . N„. 0 15 . 
and all other constituents of the urine prove the same oxy- 
dization. 
Dr. Carpenter considers the bile to be derived from the 
disintegration of the tissues, or from the decomposition of the 
elements of the blood, being the hydro-carbonaceous portion 
of the effete matters, the nitrogenous being eliminated in the 
urine. If this be the case, why is the bile reabsorbed after it 
is poured out into the intestines? For I believe only the 
colouring-matter, and perhaps not that, is normally found in 
the faeces. Besides, is not the hydro-carbonaceous matter of 
the tissues, in the process of disintegration, resolved into 
water and carbonic acid by its union with the free oxygen of 
the blood, thus causing animal heat, and the products elimi- 
nated by the lungs and kidneys, &c. ? 
That the action of the liver is purely assimilative, I think 
is indicated by its state in the early periods of embryonic 
life, when it is found, like all other assimilative glands, to 
