Researches into the action of mercury, podophylline, and taraxacum on the biliary secretion : being the report of the Edinburgh Committee of the British Medical Association / by John Hughes Bennett, chairman and reporter.

  • British Medical Association. Edinburgh Committee.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches into the action of mercury, podophylline, and taraxacum on the biliary secretion : being the report of the Edinburgh Committee of the British Medical Association / by John Hughes Bennett, chairman and reporter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    luspoKT—18G8. 100 grammes of dry food was on the first day 5-G4 grammes, on the second day JO 4 grammes, and on the third day 0-0 grammes The observation* recorded in Table XVI show, however, that soon t gr°atly influenced by the amount of dry food; it will there lie seen that the amount of bile secreted was greatly diminished by starvation. It therefore appears that the biliary secretion is in some cases greatly in- fluenced by the amount of food taken, while in other cases it is not influenced at ail. Relation between Biliary Secketion and Weight oe Animal. The close relation supposed to exist between the amount of the biliary secretion and the size or weight of the animal has not been supported bv the observations of the Committee. The amount of bile secreted for every kilo- gramme weight of dog varied greatly in different cases, as the followin'* I able shows. ° Table XXI.—Average amount of Bile secreted per Kilogramme Weight of the Dogs observed by the Committee before drugs were administered. No. of dog. Fluid bile. Bile solids. Dog 1 grins. 6-47 grm. 0-412 „ 1 7-82 0-28 „ 2 527 0-34 it 5-76 0-293 „ 4 .3-53 0-146 „ 5 21-8 0-801 „ 6 20-66 0-818 ,, 7 4-64 0-23 „ 8 9-24 0-305 9 10-2 0-58 The foregoing Table gives the per kilogramme biliary secretion only when the dogs were healthy, and not subjected to the action of drugs. The Table shows how fallacious are the calculations which have been made re- garding the human biliary secretion, from observations upon dogs, by Bidder and Schmidt. We at one time thought that the large secretion in the case of dog 5 might be due to the fact that it ate liver instead of muscle like the other dog 9; it secreted nearly as much bile, however, when, instead of liver, it ate spleen. Moreover, such an explanation could not be offered in the case of dog 6, which secreted nearly as much bile per kilogramme as dog 5. This dog was fed on a diet the same as that given to dogs 1, 2, 3, and 4, so that no peculiarity in the nature of the diet can be alleged as the cause of the large secretion in the case of dog 6. Nor can the quantity of food it took have been the cause; for the animal secreted more bile per 100 grammes of dry food than any other dog under the observation of the Committee. Seeing, then, that in the case of dog 6 neither the food nor the size of the animal can at all account for the amount of bile secreted, we must look for the cause elsewhere. One member of the Committee sug- gested that perhaps the amount of bile secreted may have a closer relation to the size of the liver than to the size of the animal. Unfortunately this idea did not occur until after dog G was kiUed, so that its liver was not weighed ; but there is this much to be said, that dog G was a young dog (six months’ old); and we know that in young animals the liver is larger in pro-
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