For, almost
invariably, those who suffer from these forms of disease are persons
who have no gall-bladder at all, as would be quite evident were they
to be dissected. Moreover, there is no kind of correspondence
between the amount of bile which is present in these diseases and
the amount which is exuded. The most probable opinion is that, as
the bile when it is present in any other part of the body is a mere
residuum or a product of decay, so also when it is present in the
region of the liver it is equally excremental and has no further
use; just as is the case with the dejections of the stomach and
intestines. For though even the residua are occasionally used by
nature for some useful purpose, yet we must not in all cases expect to
find such a final cause; for granted the existence in the body of this
or that constituent, with such and such properties, many results
must ensue merely as necessary consequences of these properties. All
animals, then, whose is healthy in composition and supplied with
none but sweet blood, are either entirely without a gall-bladder on
this organ, or have merely small bile-containing vessels; or are
some with and some without such parts. Thus it is that the liver in
animals that have no gall-bladder is, as a rule, of good colour and
sweet; and that, when there is a gall-bladder, that part of the
liver is sweetest which lies immediately underneath it.
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