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FORMATION OF BILE PIGMENTS. 441
these animals after extirpation of the liver, he was able to discover them
on tying the ductus choledochus. The investigations of Ludwig and
Fleischl ’
show that in the dog the bile-acids originate in the liver alone.
After tying the ductus choledochus, they observed that the bile constituents
were absorbed by the lymphatic vessels of the liver and passed into the
blood through the thoracic duct. Bile-acids could be detected in the
blood after such an operation, while they could not be detected in the
normal blood. But when the common bile and thoracic ducts were both
tied at the same time, then not the least trace of bile-acids could be
detected in the blood, while if they are also formed in other organs and
tissues they should have been present.
From earlier reports of Cloez and Vulpian, as well as Virchow, the bile-
acids also occur in the suprarenal capsule. These claims have not been confirmed
by later investigations of Stadelmann and Beier. 2
At the present time there
is no ground for supposing that the bile-acids are formed elsewhere than in
the liver.
It has been undoubtedly proved that the bile-pigments may be formed
in other organs besides the liver, for, as is generally admitted, the color-
ing-matter haematoidin, which occurs in old blood extravasations, is
identical with the bile-pigment bilirubin (see page 301). Latschen-
berger 3
also observed in horses, under pathological conditions, a
formation of bile-pigments from the blood-coloring matters in the tissues.
The occurrence of bile-pigments in the placenta also seems to depend
on their formation in that organ, while the occurrence of small quantities
of bile-pigments in the blood-serum of certain animals probably depends
on an absorption of these substances.
Although the bile-pigments may be formed in other organs besides
the liver, still it is of first importance to know what bearing this organ
has on the elimination and formation of bile-pigments. In this regard
it must be recalled that the liver is an excretory organ for the bile-pig-
ments circulating in the blood. Tarchanoff observed in a dog with
biliary fistula, that intravenous injection of bilirubin causes a very
considerable increase in the bile-pigments eliminated. This statement
has been later confirmed by the investigations of Vossius.4
Numerous experiments have been made to decide the question whether
the bile-pigments are only eliminated by the liver, or whether they are
also formed therein. By experimenting on pigeons, Stern was able
1
Kobner, see Heidenhain, Physiologie der Absonderungsvorgange, in Hermann’s
Handbuch, 5; Fleischl, Arbeiten aus der physiol. Anstalt zu Leipzig, Jahrgang, 9.
2
Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 18, in which the older literature may be found.
• See Maly’s Jahresber., 16, and Monatshefte f. Chem., 9.
* Tarchanoff, Pfliiger’s Arch., 9; Vossius, cited from Stadelmann, Der Icterus.
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