Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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Besides glycogen and urea, the liver also produces another substance, which is indispensable to the perfect process of digestion and assimilation. This is the bile. The bile transforms fat in the intestine into an emulsion, and thus makes it possible for the fat-splitting ferment of the pancreas to act upon it, and to split it up into glycerin and fatty acids, and thus make it serviceable for the uses of the organism. The bile augments the action of the pancreatic ferments; it stimulates the movements of the intestine, and is a powerful antiseptic to the contents of the intestine, as it hinders to a certain extent their putrefaction. Another important action is that it increases the water content of the fæces, and thus materially helps an easy evacuation of the bowels.

After having thus briefly passed in review the important functions of a healthy active liver, let us now say a few words about its examination. The liver is one of the few ductless glands which are available for manual examination by percussion and palpation. We must ascertain if it extends considerably below the costal margin, and by palpation we must ascertain whether the enlarged liver is soft or hard and cirrhotic. In the former condition we can diagnose hyperactivity of the liver, probably due to its efforts to safeguard the body against a long-continued intoxication, as may be the case in those who overeat, and also in long-continued digestive troubles, especially with dilatation of the stomach, chronic constipation, etc. Following on this hyperactivity, as is the case with all organs, there may come an exhaustion, more especially after long-continued intoxications. Thus in chronic alcoholism a simple hypertrophy of the liver may go on to cirrhosis, and later the hypertrophy may be followed by an atrophy, with all its harmful consequences, as ascites, etc.