On some New Species of Animal Concretions. 193 



calculus is of a rude triangular figure; it has evidently been 

 accompanied by other calculi, as both of its extremities possess 

 the smooth depressed surfaces found in concretions which 

 have been in contact with others. Another specimen, of an 

 oval figure, is four inches in length by three in breadth. 

 Against the notion that these concretions may have been 

 formed from the natural or the altered constituents of the bile 

 concreting around foreign bodies in the intestines, it may be 

 remarked that we have no other instance of a biliary calculus 

 being so formed*. The large biliary concretions which are 

 sometimes passed pei- anum by the human subject, have un- 

 doubtedly received no increase in bulk while in the intestine, 

 but have made their way into the intestine either through an 

 ulcerated opening or through the dilated biliary duct, which 

 is capable of undergoing dilatation to a much greater extent 

 than is generally imagined. 



The circumstance of the Oriental Bezoar being composed 

 of a vegetable acid, as I have shown in a former paper, toge- 

 ther with the assertion of most Oriental travellers, that the 

 resinous concretions are found in the stomach of the animal 

 (not a very likely spot for a biliary calculus), adds consider- 

 able weight in favour of their vegetable origin. It is however 

 right to state that I have not been able to detect the presence 

 of resino-bezoardic acid in several of the known resins. Our 

 acquaintance with these substances is however so limited that 

 it would require a very extended series of experiments to de- 

 termine this question in the negative. In its chemical rela- 

 tions, resino-bezoardic acid closely resembles the pimaric 

 acid of M. Laurent, which that excellent chemist has recently 

 shown to be the natural acid of the fir. This fact, coupled 

 with the circumstance that the calculi are not very uncommon, 

 and that vast forests of pines abound in the regions inhabited 

 D )' tne goats, render it not improbable that this resin is derived 

 from some of the fir tribe. As the term lithqfellinic acid gives 

 therefore an erroneous idea of the origin of these concretions, 



T 1 1 • 



I have ventured to substitute that of resino-bezoardic acid, 

 which does not differ materially from that of "resine animale 

 bezoardique" given to them by Fourcroy. This name will also 

 serve to identify the circumstances under which it was first 

 discovered, should its natural source be hereafter ascertained. 



* Ambergris perhaps forms an exception to this statement. This sub- 

 stance is found in the intestines of the Spermaceti Whale, or floating on the 

 sea. In the Catalogue I have placed it among intestinal concretions, al- 

 though T have pointed out at the same time that it is a biliary product; 

 its principal constituent, ambreine, bearing the same relation to the bile of 

 the Whale as cholesterine does to that of Man. 



Phil. Mas;. S. 3. Vol. 28. No. 186. March 1 846. P 



