Jaundice, its pathology and treatment : with the application of physiological chemistry to the detection and treatment of diseases of the liver and pancreas / by George Harley.

  • George Harley
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Jaundice, its pathology and treatment : with the application of physiological chemistry to the detection and treatment of diseases of the liver and pancreas / by George Harley. 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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    tlie bile to escape, and come in contact with the food at the precise moment its action becomes re- quisite in the digestive process.* The capsules not only preserve the active properties of the bile for an almost indefinite period, but they have the ad- vantage of most effectually preventing the patient tasting the remedy. Each capsule contains five grains of the pre- pared bile; and five grains is equal to one hun- dred grains of liquid bile fresh from the gall- bladder. Two capsules therefore represent two hundred grains of pure bile, a quantity (though less, perhaps, than the healthy organism consumes during each digestion) which in most cases would be sufficient for the wants of the system. If, how- ever, a larger amount be considered necessary, there is no reason why three or more capsules should not be given. By the administration of prepared bile in the manner here described, the physician is enabled to imitate nature, and sup- * Prepared bile, made up into an ordinary pill, dissolves in gastric juice in a quarter of an hour. When the pill is silvered it is dissolved in half an hour, and when gilded, in forty minutes. Whereas, in the same specimen of gastric juice, the capsules prepared for me by Savory and Moore, although swollen to more than three times their original size, were nevertheless intact at the end of an hour and a half. They readily broke on being gently squeezed between the finger and thumb, it is not there- fore probable that they would pass the pylorus in this condition without giving way, and allowing their contents to escape.
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