CONJUGATED ACIDS. 183 



Uses. If we can conjecture with some probability regarding 

 the origin of taurine, we are even less fortunate in reference to the 

 function which the taurine excreted with the bile in the intestine, 

 exerts in the animal organism, since in this point of view we are 

 entirely devoid of facts on which to hang even a bare induction. No 

 conclusion can be drawn regarding the further use of this substance 

 in the animal body, from the negative fact that hitherto no taurine 

 has been found in normal excrements, since accurate and sufficiently 

 minute experiments have not yet been made on this subject. As 

 there are some animals, as, for instance, the pig, which, although 

 they secrete bile copiously, separate no taurine by the hepatic organs, 

 it appears that at all events it is unimportant to the process of 

 digestion. But that taurine, even if first separated from the blood, 

 should be again resorbed from the intestine into the blood, and 

 being there burned, should serve as a material for supporting the 

 animal heat, appears to us not impossible, but certainly impro- 

 bable. (See " Taurocholic Acid.") 



CONJUGATED ACIDS. 



Although we may not feel justified in directly introducing into 

 physiological chemistry all the transient views which have arisen in 

 theoretical chemistry ; and although we would wish to abstain from 

 those more than hypothetical opinions regarding the theoretical 

 constitution of organic bodies, which are for ever rising, and as 

 rapidly disappearing ; yet we ought not to omit all reference to the 

 present state of theoretical chemistry, but should be ready to 

 appropriate to physiological chemistry every acquisition which 

 seems likely to be fruitful in results. It would by no means 

 further the progress of physiological chemistry at once to transfer 

 to it all the hypotheses or fictions that may have been advanced in 

 pure chemistry. If we were to attempt to support these chemical 

 hypotheses with others of a physiological nature, the foundation of 

 physiological chemistry would be very unstable, and finally the 

 whole superstructure would be an aerial image of the fancy (and of 

 these images we have already an abundance) rather than an experi- 



