IN THE IIERBIVORA. 147 



entirely on flesh, deposits of uric acid concretions 

 in the limbs or in the bladder are utterly unknown. 



43. That which must be viewed as an undeniable 

 truth in regard to the origin of the bile, or, more 

 accurately speaking, of choleic acid in the carnivora, 

 cannot hold in regard to all the constituents of the 

 bile secreted bv the liver in the herbivora, for with 

 the enormous quantity of bile produced, for example, 

 by the liver of an ox, it is absolutely impossible to 

 suppose that all its carbon is derived from the me- 

 tamorphosed tissues. 



Assuming the 59 oz. of dry bile (from 37 lbs. of 

 fresh bile secreted by an ox) to contain the same per- 

 centage of nitrogen as choleic acid (3*86 per cent.), 

 this would amount to nearly 2^oz. of nitrogen ; and 

 if this nitrogen proceed from metamorphosed tissues, 

 then, if all the carbon of these tissues passed into 

 the bile, it would yield, at the utmost, a quantity of 

 bile corresponding to 7*15 oz. of carbon. This is, 

 however, far below the quantity which, according to 

 observation, is secreted in this class of animals. 



44. Other substances, besides compounds of pro- 

 teine, must inevitably take part in the formation of 

 bile in the organism of the herbivora ; and these 

 substances can only be the non-nitrogenised con- 

 stituents of their food. 



45. The sugar of bile of Gmelin (picromel or 

 biline of Berzelius), which Berzelius considers as 

 the chief constituent of bile, while Demar^ay as- 

 signs that place essentially to choleic acid, burns, 



L 2 



