FJECES. 367 



foetus and the infant at the breast, as the following analyses 

 will show. 



I have made an analysis of the faeces of the foetus, the 

 meconium; it constituted a thick, glutinous greenish-black 

 mass, had a sweetish insipid odour, and a corresponding taste : 

 when examined with the microscope, after being diluted with 

 water, a very large number of epithelium-cells and numerous 

 rhombic plates, resembling crystallized cholesterin could be 

 seen, besides a green-coloured amorphous mass which was pre- 

 sent in considerable quantity. 



A small number of minute rounded corpuscles, which upon 

 floating about, allowed me to recognize their flattened shape, 

 appeared to be discoloured blood-corpuscles. 



Ether took up, from the dried meconium, a firm white fat, 

 cholesterin; alcohol took up some extractive matter with 

 bilifellinic acid; spirit took up a substance reacting exactly like 

 casein, together with some bilifellinic acid ; finally, alcohol aci- 

 dulated with sulphuric acid took up some green bile-pigment. 

 There remained cells, mucus, and probably albumen. 



100 parts of the dried meconium contained : 



Analysis 149. 



Cholesterin . . . 16-00 



Extractive matter and bilifellinic acid . 14-00 



Casein .... 34-00 



Bilifellinic acid and bilin . . 6-00 



Biliverdin with bilifellinic acid . . 4-00 



CeUs, mucus, albumen . . 26-00 



The ash of meconium consists, according to Payen, of an 

 alkaline carbonate, and phosphate of lime. 



[Dr. Davy 1 has recently examined the meconium both micro- 

 scopically and chemically. " It may be advantageously examined 

 by the microscope, either mixed with water or in a saturated 

 solution of common salt, or merely compressed between two 

 plates of glass. Using either method, its appearance is much 

 the same, it exhibits a confused mixture of globules, plates, 

 and molecules. 



" The globules, about 1 -3000th of an inch in diameter, are very 



1 Medico-Chirurg. Trans. 1844, p. 189. 



