Bile

in physiology, one of the digestive fluids. Bile is a thick, golden brown liquid of bitter taste and having an alkaline reaction. It is manufactured from the blood in the cells of the liver. The liver of an adult produces about a quart daily. The bile passes from the liver directly into the duodenum, or, if not needed for immediate use, it is stored in the gall sac, to be drawn upon later. Bile is an important digestive juice. It aids in breaking down fats, thereby assisting in their digestion. It separates the proteids so that they can be acted upon by the ferment, trypsin. It takes part in converting chyme into chyle. Bile is thought by many medical authorities to prevent in some degree, at least, the putrefaction of food. One of the functions of the liver is the destruction of certain poison-producing bacteria that flow into it with the blood. These the liver kills and sends on into the duodenum with the bile. If the process of bile production is interrupted, the destruction of the bacteria ceases. The bacterial poisons increase in the system and show their presence by coated tongue, by headaches, dullness, loss of appetite, and other conditions called in general biliousness. Yellow biliousness is due, therefore, to a lack of bile, not an excess. Certain drugs, well known to the medical profession, have the quality of increasing the supply of bile. They are prescribed, accordingly, for biliousness.