Unpublished paper, 'Experimental researches on the functions of the mucous membrane of the gall-bladder, principally, with reference to the conversion of hepatic into cystic bile' by George Kemp

Description

Referring to the difference in taste and other physical properties between the bile as it immediately proceeds from the liver and the same fluid after it has been retained for a time in the gallbladder, Kemp observes that the nature of this difference and the agency by which it is effected, are questions which have not yet met with the attention they deserve, and that he had accordingly been led to make them the subject of experimental inquiry. As, however, it is only on rare occasions that the hepatic bile can he procured in quantity sufficient for chemical experiment, and then only at the risk of its being altered by pathological conditions of the secreting organ, Kemp considers that, however clearly individual facts on the subject may be demonstrated, any deductions made therefrom must be referred to the lower department of probable evidence; and it is with this reservation that he lays his conclusions before the Royal Society, whilst, at the same time, he believes that, so far as the nature of the case admits, he has been able to elicit a new fact respecting the mucous membrane of the gallbladder, which may lead to the better comprehension of the functions of mucous membranes generally.

Annotations in pencil throughout.

Subject: Physiology

Received 1 May 1856. Communicated by the Rev W [William] Clark.

Written by Kemp in Guernsey.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 8 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Experimental researches on the functions of the mucous membrane of the gall-bladder, principally with reference to the conversion of Hepatic into Cystic bile'.

Reference number

AP/38/25

Earliest possible date

24 April 1856

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

17 pages

Format

Manuscript