The purpose of this paper is to investigate the pathogenesis of mechanical jaundice on long-term starvated rabbits excreting the low concentration of bile. After setting a bile duct fistula in three-week starvated rabbits given free access to water, the excreted amount of bile was neariy normal. The excreted amount of bile pigment was very small in comparison with that from normal rabbits. A common bile duct in the rabbits as starvated as those was ligated. The mechanical jaundice was markedly reduced, the net-necrosis in the liver showed an atypical feature and a small type of it was observed from early to 24 hours after ligation.
The cause of reduced mechanical jaundice was that the amount of leakaged bile from the bile duct was decreased because it weakened the injurious effect of the bile duct. Therfore, the reabsorbtion of bile pigment was milder than that of normal rabbits. It is also assumed that the fall of bile pigment metabolism led to the decrease in the amount of excreted bile pigment, which reduced the mechanical jaundice.