The physiology and hygiene of the house in which we live . we call a biliousattack, and it certainly efficiently accomplishes what it setsout to do; but one such strike begets another, and in a littletime we find a liver prone to rebel on the slightest excuse,and thoroughly not to be depended upon. The liver is oneof the worst abused and least understood organs in the ancients thought its chief duty was to secrete blackbile, and that blacli bile was synonymous with melancholy,for the Greeks believed that the soul resided in the liver, andin their language melancholy and black bile mea
The physiology and hygiene of the house in which we live . we call a biliousattack, and it certainly efficiently accomplishes what it setsout to do; but one such strike begets another, and in a littletime we find a liver prone to rebel on the slightest excuse,and thoroughly not to be depended upon. The liver is oneof the worst abused and least understood organs in the ancients thought its chief duty was to secrete blackbile, and that blacli bile was synonymous with melancholy,for the Greeks believed that the soul resided in the liver, andin their language melancholy and black bile mean one andthe same thing. We have learned that there are other causesfor melancholy than black bile, but that there are none moreefficient than a disordered liver. Whether we think lifeworth living depends largely upon the condition of the bodyschemical works, for to such a factory the liver can be welllikened. It lies in regions 1 and 2, figured in Plate I, and, as maybe seen by the annexed cut, it is abundantly supplied withV 146 Physiology and blood-vessels, so much so that the liver acts as a sortof siding into which are switched trains of both venousand arterial blood for a transfer of their freight. Muchof this, gathered up by the veins from the stomach,intestines, pancreas, etc., is hurtful, and must be rapidly excreted or it will bringdamage to the the liver effects byworking over these ref-use materials in such away that they either be-come harmless or aretransformed into newsubstances of furthervalue. Its method ofdisposing of uric acidhas already been spokenof, and the formation of bile is an instance ofDiagram op the Circulation in the Lobules ., _ T . » of the liver. the second. It is one ot a, a. Intralobular veins, ib, b. Interlobular the triumphs of modernyeina- chemistry that it can ex- tract from useless coal-tar carbolic acid and other valuable sub-stances, but long before modern antiseptics were dreamed ofthe liver was patiently making, i
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