3/6 FHYSIOLOGF. 



pour itself into the intestine, and Meckel remarked the same, whereby 

 Ramdohr's opinion is contradicted of the frequent emptying of the 

 biliary vessels into the space between the mucous membrane and the 

 true skin. He further remarked, after this emptying, a refilling of 

 the vessel and an advance of the fluid, without detecting the least 

 motion in the vessel. The substance thus emptied he says he found 

 again in the excrement, in the form of little globules upon its surface ; 

 also the reddish brown juice ejected by the Lepidoptera immediately 

 after their exclusion from the pupa, consists chiefly of the excrement of 

 the biliary vessels. That this fluid, as well as the excretion of the 

 biliary vessels, contains much uric acid, has been proved by the 

 analysis of Chevreul, Brugnatelli, and John, and which we have 

 mentioned above. According to Rengger, the secretion of the biliary 

 vessels dissolves neither in hot nor in cold water ; it becomes firmer in 

 alcohol, dissolves in concentrated acid, and is precipitated from this in 

 a flocky form, upon the addition of water : upon proof paper it exhibits 

 itself neither as acid nor alkaline, nor does it taste bitter, but insipid, 

 like all the parts of a caterpillar. The excretion does not either re-act 

 npon diluted chyme, and in the chyme from the intestinal canal beyond 

 the biliary vessels, there was no fluid matter. 



Straus Durckheim considers that there are in the cockchafer two 

 different kinds of vessels which empty themselves into the intestines. 

 The anterior ones which open beyond the stomach have ramose, trans- 

 verse continuations, and are brownish ; the posterior ones, whose 

 orifices * he could not discover, are of a yellowish white and smooth, 

 and without continuation. The anterior ones he considers as biliary 

 organs, and the posterior ones as urinary organs. It is unimaginable 

 how Straus, in so laborious and accurate an inquiry, should make such 

 a mistake, particularly as two anatomists before him had described and 

 figured the intestinal canal of the Melolonlha vn/garis, namely, 

 Ramdohrt and Leon Dufour \. From both, as well as from Suckow's 

 representation, it results, that in the cockchafer, likewise, there are but 

 four very long biliary vessels, which pass into each other, and which 

 at their anterior half send oflf ramose appendages, whereas posteriorly 

 they have none. That the biliary vessels in many cases, for example, 



* P. 270. t Abhand. uber die Verdauungsorgane, PI. XVIII. f. 1. 



J Annales dcs Sciences Natur. t. iii. p. 234, PL XIV. f. 4. 

 i In Heusinger Zeitschrift. f. d. o. Phy. vol. iii. Pt. I. PI. III. 



