These experiments prove that the bile contains poisonous substances, including pathogenic bacteria in an attenuated condition, and also that it has antitoxic properties. Thus we may understand how it can neutralize putrefactive products from the intestines. Not only bacteria, but all the various kinds of poison which the liver destroys, are eliminated by the bile; hence the importance of a free circulation of this fluid. The liver serves as a depot for metallic substances like iron and copper, and also for the more dangerous ones such as lead, mercury, arsenic, or antimony. After first keeping them in storage, it then attempts to eliminate these noxious substances. According to Slowzoff and Bamossi, the various poisonous metals and alkaloids enter into combinations with the proteid bodies of the liver. Animals that have been richly fed have been found to be better protected against these poisons because of their livers being richer in proteid contents and glycogen. The liver also protects the body against the numerous toxic products formed in the stomach and intestines during the process of digestion and assimilation. The most important of these are the carbamins and ammonia salts, which would be injurious to us if the liver did not protect us by converting them into urea. When the liver is excluded from the circulation, as Nencky and his pupils have done by establishing an Eck fistula, toxic symptoms arise when the animals are given albuminous food, and these symptoms can only be explained from the fact that the liver is unable to destroy toxic products. The more albuminous food taken, the more marked are the symptoms of intoxication. The liver aids in the transformation of the poisonous end-products of proteid metabolism by bringing about the combination of the toxic end-products with sulphuric acid (Baumann, Emden and Glaesner). Thus these dangerous substances are eliminated as ethereal sulphates, which are practically harmless. Even when these ethereal sulphates are present in large amounts in the urine there may be no symptoms of auto-intoxication. When the liver is extirpated, a condition of acidosis arises, and a large quantity of ammonia is eliminated, which is produced in order to neutralize the acids present. The liver protects us against acids formed in the organism. After eating a quantity of meat, we would be menaced by the acids formed through its decomposition, were the liver not active. We can prevent acidosis if we eat a considerable amount of carbohydrates, at least 100 grammes a day as Hirschfeld has proved. It has been shown by Waldvogel that these carbohydrates do not prevent acidosis if they are given by a method which precludes their passage through the portal circulation,—e.g., subcutaneously.