An isolated canine liver perfusion technique featuring a second dog as the pump oxygenator was used to compare biliary lipid secretion during randomized, steady-state perfusions at two different rates of cholyl taurine or chenodeoxycholyl taurine infusions. The hepatic extraction of the trihydroxy-conjugated bile acid was considerably greater than that of the dihydroxy conjugate, possibly explained by ultrafiltration experiments which indicated that cholyl taurine was less protein bound than chenodeoxycholyl taurine. Both bile acids induced phospholipid and cholesterol secretion that was linearly proportional to bile acid secretion. However, each mole of secreted chenodeoxycholyl taurine induced a greater relative secretion of phospholipid and cholesterol than did that of cholyl taurine. Thus in the canine liver, the two primary bile acids are extracted at different rates and induce biliary secretion of different relative lipid composition.