272 



ON BILE- 



Determination 

 of component 

 parts or bile. 



Analy/is. 



It would have been of little fervice to defcribe the con ft h 

 tuent parts of bile, had their proportions been left unafcerlained; 

 I have therefore endeavoured to determine them in the follow- 

 ing anal)fis : 



By means of nitric acid, 1 feparated the animal fubflance, 

 which is fuppofed to be albumen, with a very fmall portion of 

 oil : this being foluble in alcohol and the other not, it was 

 eafy to afcertain the weight of each. I then precipitated all 

 the oily matter, with acetite and a fmall excefs of oxide of lead : 

 this precipitate being mixed with the metallic oxide, I diflblved 

 it in weak nitric acid ; after filtering the liquor, I deprived 

 it of the lead which remained, by means of fulphurated hy- 

 drogen; and by evaporation, I obtained the peculiar fubftance, 

 mixed, indeed with the falts of the bile, which had moftly 

 undergone a change by the acetite of lead, and whofe weight 

 had noted. 



I afcertained the quantity of foda by calcining 100 parts ex- 

 tracted from bile, and comparing with much care how much 

 the refiduura would imbibe of acid at 16°, with the quantity 

 imbibed by pure foda. I alfo, by means not necedary to ftate 

 here, obtained the quantity of each of the other falts con- 

 tained in bile ; from all which experiments, made with the 

 utmoft care, I conclude that 800 parts of the bile of an ox 

 contain — 



799.7 

 N. D. This calculation is T \ deficient of the given quantify. 



Bile forms an interefting fubjeel for a number of other re- 

 fearches : the varieties to be found in the feveral fpecies of 

 animals, and which a multitude of circumftances, particularly 

 a morbid affection of the organ which fecretes it, may modify ; 



5 tM 



