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.

    42/52 (page 222)
    Table XVI., p. 219, shows the results of the observations before, during and after partial starvation. During the first two days the amount of bile fluid and solids secreted was very nearly the same. The amount of dry food consumed was also nearly alike. J On the 28th, bread, milk, and water were withheld. It was intended to give the usual allowance of tripe, but as it could not be obtained, liver was given instead. On this day the amount of fluid bile fell to 104-8 grammes, as compared with 140 grammes on the two previous days, but the bile solids rose to about a half more than they had previously been. This was almost wholly due to increase of the organic constituents of the bile ; for it will be seen from the Table that the bile salts (inorganic solids) were scarcely at all in- creased. July 29th 453 grammes of water were given without any dry food. The quantity of fluid bile secreted was only 41-6 grammes, less than a third of the quantity on the days previous to starvation. The amount of bile solids was 2-11 grammes, rather more than a half of the quantity secreted during the first period, while the inorganic constituent of the bile fell to 0-40 gramme, less than a half of the amount during the first period. On the 30th of July it was intended that the animal should return to the diet of July 27th, but the tripe was accidentally withheld. The amount of fluid bile rose on that day to 85-7 grammes, bile solids to 5-11 grammes, and bile salts to 0-87 gramme. Although the dry food consumed on this day was hardly one-fifth of what it was on July 26th, the amount of bile solids and salts was almost the same. On July 31st the partial starvation was discontinued; the animal consumed the same amount of dry food as on July 26th, with nearly a fourth more water. The fluid -bile on that day reached a quantity 33-1 grammes above what it was on the 26th, when the same quantity of food was given, while the amount of bile solids and salts was nearly doubled. It is difficult to account for this marked increase in the biliary secretion when the full diet was again given. During the whole experiment the animal was iD excellent health, and lost only 0-9 kilogramme in weight. The preceding observations are sufficient to show that the biliary secretion is greatly influenced by the great amount of food consumed, and it permits of the inference that diminution in the biliary secretion observed in the case of dog 8 under the influence of corrosive sublimate may have been due to impaired appetite. The same explanation cannot apply to the diminution in the biliary secretion observed in the case of dog 7 on June 17 (see Table XIII.); for, as has been previously pointed out, on that day the animal took more food than it had done on many previous days on which it had secreted a larger amount of bile. On the whole, therefore, the legitimate conclusion seems to be that mercury, when administered so as to impair the general nutrition, lessens the biliary secretion. This may result without impairment of the appetite; but when there is a diminished consumption of food, the failure in the biliary secretion is all the more marked. Conclusions regarding the Cholagogue Action of Mercury. The foregoing observations seem to us clearly to show that Pil. Hydrargyri, calomel, and corrosive sublimate, when given to dogs in either small, gradually augmented, or in large doses, do not increase the biliary secretion ; they do not even influence it so long as neither purgation nor impairment of health aie produced, but they diminish it as soon as they do either or both. It may be