When the gall is black, it is productive of madness in man,
and if it is wholly expelled death will ensue. Hence it is, too,
that the word " bile" has been employed by us to characterize
a harsh, embittered disposition; so powerful are the effects
of this secretion, when it extends its influence to the mind.
In addition to this, when it is dispersed over the whole of
the body, it deprives the eyes, even, of their natural colour;
and when ejected, will tarnish copper vessels even, rendering
everything black with which it comes in contact; so that no
one ought to be surprised that it is the gall which constitutes
the venom of serpents. Those animals of Pontus which feed
on wormwood have no gall: in the raven, the quail, and the
pheasant, the gall-bladder is united to the renal parts, and, on
one side only, to the intestines. In many animals, again, it
is united only to the intestines, the pigeon, the hawk, and the
murena, for example. In some few birds it is situate in the
liver; but it is in serpents and fishes that it is the largest in
proportion. With the greater part of birds, it extends all along
throughout the intestines, as in the hawk and the kite. In
some other birds, also, it is situate in the breast as well: the
gall, too, of the sea-calf is celebrated for its application to many
purposes. From the gall of the bull a colour is extracted like
that of gold. The aruspices have consecrated the gall to Neptune and the influence of water. The Emperor Augustus
found a double gall in a victim which he was sacrificing on
the day of his victory at Actium.