CHAP. IV.] BILIRUBIN. 315 



Berzelins 1 subsequently separated biliverdin from the precipitate 

 which barium chloride throws down when added to the bile of the 

 ox, and he came to the conclusion that the body thus obtained was 

 also identical with chlorophyll, an error which was perpetuated almost 

 to our own days. 



The strictly modern researches on the bile colouring matters may 

 be said to date from the investigations of the colouring matter of 

 gall stones by Heintz 2 ; shortly afterwards Valentiner 3 discovered 

 that the body which Berzelius had termed cholepyrrhin, and Simon 

 and Heintz biliphain and which we now term bilirubin, is very 

 soluble in chloroform and that from its chloroformic solution it can 

 be obtained in the form of reddish-yellow microscopic crystals 4 . It 

 is, however, to the thorough researches of Stadeler that we owe the 

 most complete investigation of the bile colouring matters 5 . To these 

 and subsequent researches we shall incidentally refer in discussing 

 the individual' bile colouring matters. 



Bilirubin C^H^^Og 

 (Synonyms: Cholepyrrhin, Biliphce'in, Bilifulvin, Hcematoidin*). 



Bilirubin occurs in the yellow or reddish-A^ellow bile 

 Occurrence. r , . J . > . ,-, , .-, J f .-> 



of man and carnivorous animals, in the bile of the pig 



and occasionally in tjie bile of the herbivora which have been long 

 without food. It also occurs in the contents of the small intestine 

 and is a normal constituent of the blood serum of the horse 7 . It is 



1 Berzelius, Lehrbuch der Chemie. Uebersetzt von F. Wohler. 3 Aufl. (Dresden 

 und Leipzig). Vol. ix. (1840) p. 281. 



2 Heintz, 'Ueber den in den Gallen-Steinen enthaltenen Farbstoff.' Poggendorff's 

 Anmlen, Vol. LXXXIV. (1851), p. 106116. 



3 Valentiner. Giiusberg's Zeitschrift. N. Ser. Vol. i. p. 46 (quoted at second- 

 hand). 



4 It appears to have escaped the observation of critical writers on the bile colouring 

 matters that Berzelius was certainly the first to obtain a crystalline colouring matter 

 from the bile of the ox. The process which yielded it was complicated, but its repeti- 

 tion would probably yield interesting results. Berzelius assigned the name of biliful- 

 vin to the crystalline body which he obviously did not consider identical with the 

 impure bilirubin to which he applied the name of cholepyrrhin: "Bilifulvin habe ich 

 eine noch problematische aus Bills bubula spissata erhaltene, krystallisirte rothgelbe 

 Substanz genannt, die ich noch nicht gehorig zu studiren Gelegeuheit hatte." 



Having described his process of separation he thus expresses himself as to the 

 product: "So bekommt man eine gelbe Losung, die verdunstet ein rothbraunes 

 Extract zuriicklasst. Wird dieses in Alkohol aufgelost und die Losung der freiwilligen 

 Verdunstung iiberlassen, so schiessen daraus zuerst kleine rothgelbe Krystalle an. Diese 

 Krystalle sind es die ich Bilifulvin genannt habe." See Berzelius, Lehrbuch d. Chemie 

 (Uebersetz. v. Wohler), Vol. ix. (1840), p. 285. 



6 G. Stadeler, 'Ueber die Farbstoffe der Galle.' Annalen der Ghent, u. Pharmac. 

 Vol. cxxxn. (1864), p. 323 et seq. 



6 The name hsematoidin is only applied to bilirubin when occurring in old extra- 

 vasations of blood. 



7 Oloff Hammarstan, 'Om forekomsten af gallforyamm i blodserum.' Upsala, 

 Lakaref6rening's/or/iandZin#ar, Vol. xiv. p. 50. See the abstract of this paper, 'Ueber 

 das Vorkommen von Gallenfarbstoff in dem Blutserum,' by its author in Maly's 

 Jahresbericht, Vol. vm. (1879), p. 129. 



