It would appear superfluous to make a review of the vast amount of literature, which has appeared during the last few years, concerned with nonsurgical drainage of the gall tract, following Lyon's1 original and subsequent expositions on the subject.
We are of the opinion (after the experience gained by one of us in draining over 1,500 gall tracts) that the bile, when obtained by this method, does appear in more or less definite fractions, corresponding to Lyon's "A," "B" and "C" bile. Where this does not occur in a patient who is "tube broken," there is usually some pathologic change to account for it, if the technic has not been faulty.
In an excellent paper which appeared recently, Rous and McMaster2 demonstrated that the gallbladder is the only structure in the gall tract which can normally concentrate bile. They studied the ability of the gallbladder to concentrate bile, using as
BOCKUS HL, EIMAN J. EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CHOLESTEROL CONTENT OF BILE. Arch Intern Med (Chic). 1924;34(2):161-167. doi:10.1001/archinte.1924.00120020027003