470 MORBID PRODUCTS. 



their colour brown or yellow. Internally they present a de- 

 cidedly crystalline character, they are white or yellow, and 

 often contain a minute cavity in the centre, of a darker colour 

 than the rest of the concretion, and presenting an incrusted 

 appearance. 



Witting 1 found in a human gall-stone cholesterin 50 ; resin 

 and colouring matter insoluble in ether 35 j carbonate of lime 

 8, water 5. 



The following analyses of human gall-stones were made by 

 Glaube and Brande : 



Brande. 



Glaube. T 2. 3? 



Cholesterin . . .56 81-25 69'76 81-77 



Biliary resin . 8 3-12 5-66 3-83 



Bile-pigment . . .15 9-38 11-38 7'57 



Albumen with mucus and salts extract- -i 

 able by water . . / 



Coagulated albumen . . 9 



Biliary mucus . . .12 6-25 13-20 



In addition to the ordinary constituents Von Bibra 2 found 

 l'5g of alumina with iron, and l'4g of carbonate of lime in a biliary 

 calculus ; and Witting, as I have already observed, detected a 

 considerable amount of the latter constituent in a concretion of 

 this nature. An extraordinary quantity of this earth was found 

 by Bally and Henry in a gall-stone ; it consisted of carbonate 

 of lime with traces of carbonate of magnesia 72- 70, phosphate 

 of lime 13*51, mucus, with a little peroxide of iron and bile- 

 pigment, 10-81. 



[Schmidt and Wackenroder have recently published analyses 

 of human biliary calculi, consisting principally of colouring 

 matter. Archiv der Pharmacie, vol. 41, p. 291.] 



Berzelius mentions another kind of gall-stone, consisting 

 principally of carbon ; at least it is insoluble in water, alcohol 

 and ether, acid and alkaline fluids ; when heated to redness in 

 a retort, undergoes no alteration, but when burned in oxygen, 

 after giving off slight traces of smoke, takes fire, and burns 

 without flame or residue, with the formation of carbonic-acid gas. 



I have recently examined a biliary calculus found in the 

 gall-bladder of an officer who died from cerebral and spinal 

 irritation, and incipient softening of the nervous tissue : in 



1 Archiv der Pharm. vol. 25, p. 292. 2 Journ. fur prakt. Chemie, vol. 12, p. 311. 



