THE LIVER

The materials absorbed from the intestinal tract and deposited in the blood go to the liver. 

THE LIVER

 If you place your left hand over the lowermost ribs on the right side of your chest, it will cover the liver, the largest internal organ in the body. In a baby, the liver makes up about one twenty-fifth of total body weight and occupies more than one third of the abdominal cavity, giving the child a pudgy appearance. In an adult, it weighs three to four pounds. It's a remarkably versatile gland, with dozens of functions. 

In its role as a digestive organ, the liver secretes bile, as already noted. Bill: flows (rom the liver through tubes which join to form the hepatitis duct. This duct joins the cystic duct, which leads upward to the gall- bladder. Between periods of digestion, bile backs up in the gallbladder and is stored there. As food passes from stomach to duodenum, the gall- bladder contracts and bile flows out the cystic duct, through the common bile duct, to an opening into the duodenum.

The liver serves as a storehouse for digested food-fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. It manufactures proteins, absorbs fat products, processes carbohydrates, and makes these available as fuel. It processes iron for the blood. It filters the blood, rendering harmless many poisons that may have entered the bloodstream. It is the liver that modifies various medicines, drugs, and poisons to make them innocuous. 

The liver can replace its own tissues. If nine tenths of the organ is removed, the remaining one tenth will undergo such active cell division that the original size will be restored within six to eight weeks.