The elimination of certain dyes from the animal organism.

Abstract

The observations of Delprat and others 1 that an aqueous solution of rose bengal when injected intravenously into animals is rapidly eliminated through the bile, is not without theoretical significance as well as of practical value. Its behavior in this respect is wholly like that of the bile acids. 2 Rose bengal is not soluble in the ordinary fat solvents and its behavior in the body does not follow the assumption of Mendel and Daniels 3 that substances which are eliminated from the body by way of the bile must be insoluble in water and soluble in bile or substances contained therein.

Rose bengal is a highly diffusible substance and it was not found possible to retain it within an ordinary collodion membrane. This property suggested that it might be possible by ligation of the bile duct to force the dye through the kidney. Numerous experiments∗ which were carried out on both dogs and rabbits showed that after ligation of the bile duct, rose bengal was found present in the blood stream for a period of 48 hours after the injection of the dye. The absence of color in the urines indicated that the dye did not pass through the kidney. Under similar conditions, congo red, a non-diffusible dye which in the normal animal appears in both bile and urine was eliminated in the urine.

That chemical makeup is not without influence upon the path of excretion of the dye from the body is shown by the experiments which are given in Table I. Both dogs and rabbits were

used in the experiments. For the purpose of studying the excretion of the dyes a temporary biliary fistula was made.