224 THE BILE. 



from the experiments of Bidder and Schmidt on the quantity of sulphur 

 contained in the feces of the dog, as compared with that in the tauro- 

 cholic acid of his biliary salts. The significance of these experiments 

 depends upon the fact that the biliary salts themselves, being compound 

 bodies, might be so altered by decomposition in the intestine as to lose 

 their characteristic reactions, and yet their separated materials might 

 remain ; but as sulphur, on the other hand, is a chemical element, not 

 decomposable by any known means, it must be capable of detection, if 

 present, by ultimate analysis. The dog was selected as the subject of 

 experiment, for the reason that the bile in this animal contains so large 

 a proportion of the sodium taurocholate, of which sulphur is a constituent 

 part. 



The results obtained by Bidder and Schmidt 1 showed that the quantity 

 of sulphur evacuated in the feces was much less than that discharged 

 into the intestine with the bile. 



These observers collected and analyzed all the feces passed, during 

 five days, by a healthy dog, weighing 8 kilogrammes. The entire fecal 

 mass during this period weighed 97.716 grammes, 



("Water 56.642 grammes. 



I Solid residue .... 41.074 " 



97.716 

 The solid residue was composed as follows : 



Neutral fat, soluble in ether . . 2.832 grammes. 



Fat, with traces of biliary matter . 4.991 " 



Alcohol extract, with biliary matter 3.816 containing 0.070 of sulphur. 



Substances not of a biliary nature 



extracted by muriatic acid and 



hot alcohol .... 9.641 containing 0.085 of sulphur. 



0.155 



Fatty acids with oxide of iron . 6.377 

 Residue consisting of hair, sand, etc. 13.417 



41.074 



As it has already been shown (page 219) that the dog secretes, during 

 24 hours, 0.985 gramme of solid biliary matter for every kilogramme 

 of bodily weight, the entire quantity of biliary matter secreted in five 

 days by the above animal, weighing 8 kilogrammes, must have been 

 39.4 grammes, or nearly as much as the whole weight of the dried feces. 

 But furthermore, the natural proportion of sulphur in dog's bile, derived 

 from the sodium taurocholate, is 6 per cent, of the dry residue. The 

 39.4 grammes of dry bile, secreted during five days, contained, there- 

 fore, 2.364 grammes of sulphur. But the entire quantity of sulphur, 

 existing in any form in the feces, was 0.385 gramme ; and of this only 

 0.155 gramme could have been the product of biliary matters the re- 



1 Yerdauungssaefte und Stoffwechsel. Leipzig, 1852, p. 217 



