104 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



derivative of cholesterine, but all attempts to prepare it from 

 that body by chemical or bacterial means have, up to now, been 

 unsuccessful. They proved that it was never found in any of 

 the organs, tissues or fluids of the body, and therefore con- 

 cluded that the reduction took place in the intestines. A man 

 was fed with cholesterine, and was found to excrete it mainly 

 as coprosterine, and following up this observation Miiller 

 examined the effect of a milk diet, in which putrefactive 

 changes in the intestine are reduced to a minimum. He found 

 that the faeces of both the suckling and the milk-fed adult 

 contained cholesterine only and no coprosterine, while on any 

 other diet coprosterine only was observed. The results seem 

 to confirm the hypothesis of a bacterial formation in the 

 intestines. The authors also have noticed that the dog, when 

 given various ordinary diets such as meal or cooked meat, 

 normally excretes a small quantity of cholesterine. When fed on 

 raw brain, however, the extract of the faeces yields coprosterine 

 only and no cholesterine. 



This resume of recent work shows that while some progress 

 has been made in our knowledge of the structural chemistry 

 of cholesterine, a very great deal remains to be done. Of the 

 physiological significance of this important body practically 

 nothing is known. The probability is that the chemical 

 work will follow the same course as that which resulted in 

 the clearing up of the constitution of the terpenes, and that 

 then, aided by a great advance in our knowledge of other 

 physiological bodies and of metabolism in general, the problem 

 of the origin and function of cholesterine in the system will 

 be solved. 



The following is a list of the most important recent papers 

 on cholesterine, with an indication of their contents : 



J. MAUTHNER and W. Svwh—Monatshefte fur Chemie : 



I. — xv. 85 (1894), Hydrocarbons ; Chlorine and other Derivatives. 

 II. — xv. 362 (1894), The Formula of Cholesterine. 



III. — xvii. 29 (1896), Hydrocarbons ; Distillation of Cholesteryl Chloride. 

 IV. — xvii. 579 (1896), Oxidation of Cholesterine ; Oxycholestenol, etc. 

 V.— xxiv. 175 (1903), Acids CuH l6 8 and CisHigOg, etc. 

 VI. — xxiv. 648 (1903), Nitrous Acid on ; Hydrocarbon CisHjg, etc. 

 J. MAUTHNER— Ibid: 



I. — xxvii. 305 (1906), Addition of Hydrogen Chloride. 

 II.— xxvii. 305 (1906), Specific Rotations of Cholestene and Cholestane 

 Derivatives. 

 III.— xxviii. 1113 (1907), On Cholestene. 



