472 MORBID PRODUCTS. 



acids, but dissolves in caustic potash, with which it forms a 

 soap that develops an odour resembling amber. It separates 

 from this soap in a crystalline form on the addition of an acid. 

 These crystals are of a rhombic- prism form, dissolve in alcohol 

 and ether but not in water, fuse at a high temperature, and 

 combine with alkalies to form soaps, which are slightly soluble 

 in water, but dissolve readily in alcohol and ether. This 

 acid has also been observed by Wohler, and I have like- 

 wise detected a substance in the biliary calculi of cattle, 

 which, as far as I have yet been able to analyse it, seems to be 

 identical with lithofellinic acid. It is probable that lithofellinic 

 acid is of more frequent occurrence than has hitherto been 

 supposed; it ought, therefore, to be sought for in all biliary 

 calculi, more especially in those of cattle. 



The biliary calculi of cattle vary from the size of a pea to 

 that of a pigeon's egg; they may be easily pulverized, the 

 powder varying in colour from a dull green to a clear brown, 

 and possessing a decidedly bitter taste. On boiling the pul- 

 verized calculus with alcohol, the alcohol becomes coloured 

 yellow or green, and leaves on evaporation a small quantity of 

 biliary resin and cholesterin. The powder, after extraction 

 with alcohol, yields to caustic ammonia or to its carbonate, a 

 certain amount of its colouring matter, but not so much as is 

 taken up by an even very dilute solution of caustic potash. 

 The alkaline solution is of a yellowish brown tint, but soon 

 changes into 'a green. On the addition of hydrochloric acid to 

 the alkaline solution the colouring matter is precipitated in the 

 form of gray flocculi which dissolve readily in alcohol, leaving 

 in an insoluble state the mucus that had been dissolved by the 

 potash. 



Schiibler and Michel 1 analysed a concretion found in a cystic 

 tumour in the liver of a man. It was of a red colour, and was 

 composed of 25 parts of yellow, slightly saponifiable fat soluble 

 in ether, and of 75 parts of red colouring matter. This colouring 

 matter presented several remarkable characters, and Berzelius 

 regards it as a morbid form of the ordinary bile-pigment. 



1 Journal fttr prakt. Chemie, vol. 8, p. 378. 



