368 THE EXCRETIONS : 



abundant, and form the principal mass of the whole. Judging 

 from their form and size, their insolubility in water and alcohol, 

 they may be inferred to consist chiefly of mucus. 



' ' The plates, which are tolerably abundant, are of two kinds : 

 one kind is of irregular form, somewhat granular, varying in 

 size from about 1 -2000th to 1 -1000th of an inch in diameter, 

 insoluble in water, alcohol, whether hot or cold, and the dilute 

 acids and alkalies after the manner of epithelium- scales, which 

 we believe them to be. The other kind are of a regular form, 

 chiefly rhomboidal, of great thinness and perfect transparency, 

 insoluble in water and acids and cold alcohol, but readily so- 

 luble in hot ; properties sufficiently indicative of cholesterin. 



"The molecules vary in size from l-8000th to l-20,000th of 

 an inch in diameter ; and, as they are insoluble in water, and 

 in most part soluble in an alkaline ley, they may be considered 

 as consisting chiefly of fatty matter. They constitute a very 

 small part of the whole. 



" Besides these ingredients admitting of being distinguished 

 by the microscope, to which the meconium owes its thick con- 

 sistency and viscid nature, there is another portion, the soluble 

 part, with which they are imbued, and from which the mass 

 derives its colour and taste, and probably its power of resisting 

 putrefaction, and which seems identical with the colouring and 

 sapid matter of bile, being soluble in water and alcohol. 1 



" The specific gravity of meconium, deprived of air, exceeds 

 that of water. It sinks in a saturated solution of common 

 salt of the specific gravity of 1148. 



" This mixture of meconium and brine affords, after standing 

 for some time, a kind of mechanical analysis or separation of 

 its ingredients. The mucus-globules and epithelium- scales, 

 dyed of a dark green by the colouring matter, find their place 

 of rest at the bottom, whilst in the supernatant fluid, slightly 

 turbid, and of a bright greenish-yellow hue, numerous plates of 

 cholesterin, and a smaller number of fatty globules and mole- 

 cules are found suspended." 



1 This property of meconium is remarkable. After more than three months a 

 portion put by in a bottle containing a good deal of air, closed to prevent the drying 

 of the substance, was found unaltered in colour, and presenting the same appearance 

 under the microscope as when first examined ; the only perceptible difference was 

 that its upper surface was covered with a mould or mucor, like that of cheese, formed 

 of connected globules, each about 1 -5000th of an inch in diameter. 



