Dr. KEMP, ON THE NATURE OF THE BILIARY SECRETION. 49 



with soda is precipitated by acetic acid ; the body contained in the bile is not precipitated 

 by that reagent. We know also that ox-bile, treated in the manner directed by Demar^ay for 

 the preparation of choleic acid, is resolved into two bodies, the choleic acid and the chloidic, 

 the latter forming a very large proportion of the results, probably as much as one half; and it is 

 remarkable, that adding the quantity of elements found in the two, and taking the mean, we have 

 almost exactly the quantity as given by the analysis of human bile. The highest authority 

 on all subjects connected with chemical research is undoubtedly Berzelius, and he has lately 

 given it as his opinion that the bile is essentially composed of bilin, bilifellic acid, and bilicholic 

 acid. Considering, however, that these bodies were eliminated by means of reagents which he 

 himself has acknowledged as more likely to yield products than educts, we are perhaps justified 

 in supposing that these bodies were the results of manipulation ; it is at any rate highly improbable 

 that in the very large number of elementary analyses made, we should in each case have accidentally 

 procured bile in which precisely the same point of transformation of bilin into the other products 

 should have been arrived at. One experiment was however made which proved that the body 

 described by Berzelius as bilin does not always exist at all in the bile. I obtained the biliary 

 secretion from an ox immediately as slaughtered, and while it was quite warm : the mucus and 

 fatty acids were removed with as great dispatch as practicable, the dried bile was then dissolved 

 in alcohol freed from water as thoroughly as possible, and through the solution a stream of 

 carbonic acid gas was transmitted for the space of three hours, without the slightest precipitate 

 or even opacity occurring. Now one of the principal characters of bilin, according to Berzelius, 

 is, that if combined with a base its tendency to combine is so slight that the combination is 

 destroyed by carbonic acid. In the above experiment, therefore, if bilin had been present, the 

 carbonic acid would have combined with the soda, forming the carbonate of soda, which is insoluble 

 in alcohol, while the bilin would have remained in solution. 



Such are the principal facts which I beg to lay before you. It remains yet to be determined 

 whether the electro-negative body in the bile is the same in all animals. A certain analogy seems 

 to exist between the bile of the ox and that of man ; but it would be premature to place on record 

 any reasonings which, however probable at the present stage of the investigation, more accumulated 

 evidence may not confirm. The subject is in progress, and bids fair to give decided and satisfactory 

 results. 



G. KEMP. 



St. Peteb's College. 



Vol. VIII. Part I. 



