GLYCOCHOLIC ACID. 223 



in alkalies it dissolves freely, being precipitated from them by 

 acids, in a resinous form ; on standing, especially after the addition 

 of a little ether, the resinous precipitate becomes crystalline. A 

 solution of the acid in combination with an alkali yields no preci- 

 pitate with chloride of barium ; but there are precipitates on the 

 addition of the salts of the oxides of lead and copper and peroxide 

 of iron; nitrate of silver, when added to very dilute solutions, 

 yields a gelatinous precipitate, which, on warming, again dissolves, 

 and on cooling gradually assumes a crystalline form. By prolonged 

 boiling with a solution of potash, or still better, with baryta- water, 

 this acid becomes resolved into the non-nitrogenous cholic acid and 

 glycine (seep. 152). When boiled with concentrated sulphuric or 

 hydrochloric acid, it is resolved into choloidic acid and glycine. 

 (Strecker.*) 



With sulphuric acid, and either sugar or acetic acid, glycocholic 

 acid yields the same reaction as cholic acid (see p. 123.) 



If glycocholic acid be submitted to prolonged ebullition in water, 

 it becomes perfectly insoluble, and breaks up into fragments of six- 

 sided tablets. To this modification the name ofparacholic acid has 

 been applied by Strecker. 



Composition. From numerous analyses of glycocholic acid and 

 its salts, Streckert has deduced for it the above formula, according 

 to which it consists of : 



Carbon .... .... 52 atoms .... 



Hydrogen .... 42 ,, 



Nitrogen.... .... 1 



Oxygen .... 11 



Water .... .... 1 



100-000 



The atomic weight of the hypothetical anhydrous acid =5 700; 

 and its saturating capacity =1*75 4. 



Hardly a doubt can remain that this is a conjugated acid, when 

 we consider, on the one hand, that we are acquainted with another 

 acid (hippuric acid) from which the same nitrogenous body, glycine, 

 may be separated by acids, and that, on the other hand, there is 

 another acid from which the same non -nitrogenous acid, cholic 

 acid, is liberated by acids, another body, taurine, being simul- 

 taneously produced; (this taurine in the taurocholic acid 

 taking the place of the glycine in the glycocholic acid.) In glyco- 



* Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 66, S. 1-43. 

 t Ibid. Bd. 65, S. 1-37. 



