The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-10-24
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE B1LI

| Tn primitive physiology the bile was one oi
 the four humors and the ancients canea II choler and ascrbed to it irascibility. TO tnls | dav the term choleric means hot-tempered | pa ssionate temperament, fiery disposition, reao- l ily excited to anger. This was assoclateo Wltn ordinary yellow greensh bile, ana brune!s
 of strong physique were SD pecause oA '1e bile Darker or black bile was even Worse rms accounted for melancholy-and sure enough the very meaning of melan is black or dark anu cholc means bile.
 The most interesting book, the one book | T should choose if could have but one, IS the dictionary, not dnky pocket or desk analr but the full quarto volume, the one 1auit or which is that like the best secretary or stenog- rapher YOU can't conveniently take it on your | lap In a little wrassle with mine just noW-my |dictionery, dangya-I discovered that the Woro
 anger is derived from the same root as IS our medical term angina, which means choking.
 That will do. children. The lesson to-day is
 the physiology of the liver and some painless information about gall
 A healthy adult secretes from to 1-2 pints
 of bile daily. The bile or gall is yellow or gold en hued in the carnivora, green in herbivora, ffty-ffty in man. It is alkaline, viscid, sterile
 (germ free) and somewhat antiseptic. The bile
 (1) aids the digestion of fats in the intestine,
 CD limits the extent of putrefaction, (3) pro-
 notes or stimulates peristalss which propels the digesting food along the alimentary canal, and (4) in minor way carries waste material
 out of the blood. This last function is obscure; at least we do not know just what substances,
 if any, are excreted or eliminated from the
 body in the bile.
 It is the common observation that when bile
 is vomited the sickness is due to 'biliousness. :"
 This notion is closely associated with the notion
 that bile is an abnormal "poisonous' sub-
 stance, especially if it be greensh in color, or
 black." The truth is that if any healthy per-
 son receives a strong emetc, after the contents
 of the stomach is elected if the vomiting be repeated or continued bile will appear. Vom- ting is essentially reversed perstalsis, and bile is normally present in the duodenum just be-
 yond the lower gateway (pylorus) of the
 stomach. during the digestion of meal. In
 the normal digestive process each gush of chyme (miXture of food with gastric juce) into the duodenum eXctes reflex contraction of the gallbladder which spurts some bile into the du- odenum Thus it is mistake to assume that the sick person has bilious attack any, thing wrong with the liver or gall apparatus when bile is elected from the stomach. It is | rather the absence of bile in such crcun- | stances that suggests trouble in the northwest hope all our readers will this paragraph twice over, for it is not only lesson in physi- | ology but good health psychology too.
 Further we'll consider jaundice. In this discussion of the bile nothing has been said | about the functions of the liver. Besides se- creting bile the liver plays an important part in nutrition, notably the formation and storage of glycogen (animal starch, blood sugar) the formation Of urea, and other metabolic func- l tions such as the production of substances concerned in the clottng of blood and per. haps the recovery of hemoglobin or red color | ing matter from. the red blood corpuscles de- stroyed daily.