CHQLESTEKESTE. 267 



Kunde, 1 Lehmann, 3 and Moleschott, 3 on frogs, in which the 

 liver was removed and the animal survived several days, and 

 in the observations of Moleschott, between two and three 

 weeks, it was found impossible to determine the accumula- 

 tion of the biliary salts in the blood. There is no reason, 

 therefore, for supposing that these principles are products of 

 disassimilation. Once discharged into the intestine, they 

 undergo certain changes, and can no longer be recognized by 

 the usual tests ; but experiments have shown that, changed 

 or unchanged, they are absorbed with the elements of food. 4 

 They are probably the elements concerned in the digestive 

 function of the bile. 



Cholesterine^ C 26 H 22 O. 



Before the publication, in 1862, of a memoir on a new 

 excretory function of the liver, the function and relations of 

 cholesterine were not known, and this substance was hardly 

 mentioned in most works on physiology. As we believe 

 that it must now be recognized as one of the most impor- 

 tant of the products of disassimilation, it becomes interesting 

 and important to study its properties more closely. 



The first description we have of cholesterine is by 

 Fourcroy, who states that it was discovered by Poulletier 

 de la Salle, in 1Y82. 5 Fourcroy also described adipocire, 

 which he likened to cholesterine, although he did not con- 



1 KUNDE, De Hepatis Extirpatione, Dissertatio Inauguralis, Berolini, 1850. 



2 LEHMANN, Physiological Chemistry, Philadelphia, 1855, vol. L, p. 476. 



s MOLESCHOTT, Sur la secretion du sucre et de la bile dans le foie. Comptes 

 rendus, Paris, 1855, tome xl., p. 1040. 



Moleschott was more successful, in these experiments, than any of those who 

 had preceded him. He extirpated the liver from a great number of frogs, and 

 succeeded in keeping them alive for two or three weeks ; but he could never 

 detect in the blood the bile-pigment or the biliary salts. 



4 See vol. ii., Digestion, p. 374, et seq. 



5 FOURCROY, Memoire sur la nature des alterations qtfeprouvent quelques hu- 

 meurs animates, par Veffet des maladies etpar Vaction des remedes. Memoires de 

 la Societe Royale de Medecine, 1782-1783, Paris, 1788, p. 489. The substance 



