GREEN STOOLS. 145 



The excrements in such cases are of a dirty whitish grey colour, 

 and develop a very disgusting, putrid odour ; in other respects 

 they do not essentially differ from normal feeces. 



A green coloration of the excrements was formerly, and for a 

 long time, regarded as a sign of the presence of bile ; latterly, 

 however, its presence in green stools has been altogether denied. 

 The cases are certainly only few in which the green colour of the 

 faeces depends on the admixture of imperfectly metamorphosed bile- 

 pigment, and are almost entirely limited to the condition of true 

 polycholia, which rarely occurs in adults, but is ordinarily present 

 in icterus neonatorum. In these cases the cholepyrrhin, in con- 

 sequence of the predominance of free acid, appears to be con- 

 verted in the intestine only into that modification of the pigment 

 which we term biliverdin. On adding nitric acid to the alcoholic 

 extract of these stools, we obtain the ordinary reaction of bile- 

 pigment, and with concentrated sulphuric acid and sugar we obtain 

 indications of the presence of the resinous acids, so that no doubt 

 can remain regarding the abundant existence of almost unchanged 

 bile in these stools. 



Every one is acquainted with the appearance of the grass- 

 green, pulpy stools, which so frequently follow the administration of 

 calomel. There have been many experiments, but far more con- 

 troversial discussions, in reference to this coloration. My own 

 investigations lead to the following conclusions : After calomel 

 has been taken, we always find mercury in the stools, whether they 

 be green, or black, or of their ordinary colour ; this had previously 

 been distinctly established by Hermann,* and even more strongly by 

 Merklein.f Hofle has likewise convinced himself of the presence of 

 mercury in the fasces in these cases. The sulphide of mercury may 

 be separated, by rinsing, from the evacuation, when stirred in water, 

 as Merklein was the first to observe, and its chemical nature may be 

 then very easily recognised ; the dark colour of the sulphide of mer- 

 cury, when finely comminuted, may certainly, like sulphide of iron, 

 give rise to a light green colour with animal substances, and espe- 

 cially with the yellow bile-pigment; indeed, powdered calomel, when 

 triturated with yellowish brown excrements, causes them, according 

 to Hermann, to assume a greenish colour. But, notwithstand- 

 ing these facts, we should not deny the presence of almost un- 

 changed bile in calomel stools, for we may with facility recognise 



* De rationibus dosium calomellis, &c. Diss. inaug. Haunise. 1839. 

 t Ueber die grunen Stuhle nach dem Gebrauche des Calomels im typhosen 

 Fieber. Inauguralabhandlg. Miinchen. 1842. 



VOL. II. & 



