HALOID BASES AND SALTS. 235 



taurocholic acid undergoes in the intestinal canal, as we are regard- 

 ing those of glycocholic acid, we are unable to express by a 

 chemical equation, the part which it takes in the process of 

 digestion ; and until this can be done, we cannot give a satisfactory 

 explanation of the chemical action of the bile. The consideration 

 of the physiological relations, from which we judge of the import- 

 ance of the biliary secretion, in reference to the metamorphosis of 

 the animal tissues and to animal life, and which is based on the 

 chemical substratum we have here laid down, will be found in 

 another part of this work. 



HALOID BASES AND HALOID SALTS. 



The consideration of the above series of organic acids has made 

 us become acquainted with a number of bodies, which, in oppo- 

 sition to the ordinary rules of chemistry, enter into combination 

 with acids without depriving them of their most essential chemical 

 characters. There is, however, also a series of substances which 

 can so combine with organic and mineral acids, that they per- 

 fectly neutralise their acidity, and can form with them true salts, 

 both neutral and acid, without deserving,, on account of their con- 

 taining no nitrogen, to be classed among the alkaloids. 



This class of salts has recently been referred to the conjugated 

 compounds (by Gerhardt and Laurent,* and Strecker,f) since the 

 idea of bodies of this nature has become tolerably firmly established ; 

 but the property of these non-nitrogenous bases, perfectly to satu- 

 rate the strongest mineral and organic acids, appears to us a very 

 stringent reason why these bodies should be separated from the 

 true adjuncts, and why their neutral and acid combinations with 

 acids should be separated from the true conjugated acids. Ber- 

 zeliusj has applied the name of Haloids to these salt-like combina- 

 tions of acids with non-nitrogenous bodies. If we attempt to apply 

 the highly probable (but not indubitably established) hypothesis of 



* Ann. d. China, et de Phys. 3 Se'r. T. 24, pp. 163-208. 

 t Ann. d. Ch. u. PJiarm. Bd. 68, S. 47-55, 

 % Jahresber. 27, S. 425. 



