On one occasion, while experimenting with bile at University College, I was surprised to hear Minton, the servant who was assisting me, say, that while he was travelling with Sir Andrew Smith in South Africa, he had oftentimes seen the {19} Caffres drink bile direct from the gall-bladders of the animals killed by the European party, and that, while passing the gall-bladder round to each other, they would rub their stomachs and say,--"Mooé-ka-kolla," signifying thereby, that it was very good. It certainly seems very extraordinary that any human being should not only drink, but drink with pleasure, a liquid so bitter and nauseating as bile. Perhaps the poor Caffres, however, drank the sickening tasted bile for the same reasons as the cattle in Caffreland, at certain periods of the year, go thousands of miles to drink at the salt-springs. There being scarcely any chloride of sodium in the earth, there is insufficient for the animal requirements in the herbage on which they feed, and they are forced to supply the deficiency by artificial means. Bile contains a large percentage of soda, and perhaps the Caffres drink it in order to obtain that substance, just as the animals drink the brackish water of the salt licks, feeling that it agrees with them, without knowing why. THE MECHANISM OF JAUNDICE. As said in the beginning of this paper, I believe, the pathology of jaundice may be embodied under the two heads, jaundice from suppression {20} of the biliary functions, and jaundice from re-absorption of the secreted but retained bile. These are at best, however, but vague terms, and in order to make the pathology of jaundice somewhat more definite it will be necessary for me to subdivide these two great classes in the following manner:-- (CLASS A.)--JAUNDICE FROM SUPPRESSION. Arising from:-- (1) Enervation. (2) Disordered hepatic circulation. (3) Absence of secreting substance. (CLASS B.)--JAUNDICE FROM RE-ABSORPTION. Arising from:-- (1) Congenital deficiency of bile-ducts. (2) Accidental obstruction of bile-ducts. I shall now try to point out the pathology of these different states, and see how far they are able to explain the occurrence of jaundice under the various conditions already alluded to. JAUNDICE FROM SUPPRESSION. Although there can be no misunderstanding the meaning of the term "jaundice from suppression," there may, nevertheless, be some difficulty in comprehending how the skin becomes yellow, and the urine high coloured, when the secretion {21} of bile is arrested. In order to explain how this occurs, it will be necessary to recall to mind what was said regarding the nature of the biliary secretion. It will be remembered that I began by saying, that while some of the constituents of the bile are generated in the liver itself, there are others that exist, pre-formed in the blood.