CHAP. IV.] CHOLOH^MATIN. 333 



important assertion that the bile of the ox in the fresh condition 

 presents no-absorption bandstand that even the alcoholic extract only 

 presents bands after exposure to air. 



MacMunn's I n 1880 MacMunn 1 , obviously unacquainted with 



observations. t j ie p rev i ous observations, described the bile of the ox 

 and sheep as follows : " When obtained fresh it is green, but soon 

 changes to reddish-brown, and presents exactly the same spectrum 

 when obtained from the ox that it does when it is got from the 

 sheep. This spectrum is a very fine one, and presents in a deep 

 layer three bands, in a thinner one four bands, and in a still thinner 

 a fifth band at F is visible." 



Subsequently MacMunn published more detailed descriptions of 

 the colouring matter which occasioned the peculiar spectrum in the 

 bile of the ox and sheep 2 and assigned to it, because of its supposed 

 genetic relationships, the name of cholohsematin 3 ; to MacMunn's 

 researches we shall again refer. 



The Author's The reader will have remarked the great dis- 



PhTr ti0n t S; crepancv between the results of the three sets of 

 Cholohaematin ,* , 1 , ., . 



non-existent researches referred to and it appeared to the Author 



in the bile at desirable to determine whether the so-called cholo- 

 the moment of haematin ever occurs in the bile at the moment of 

 death. In order to settle the point he completely 

 filled sterilised pipettes with bile collected from the gall-bladders 

 of oxen and sheep immediately after the animals had been killed, 

 and at once sealed the pipettes in a flame, taking care to occlude 

 no air. At the same time samples of the same bile were collected 

 in stoppered glass bottles, care being taken that the liquid only 

 partially filled them. These bottles were then shaken so as 

 thoroughly to mix their liquid and gaseous contents. 



From a large number of observations it resulted that the bile 

 when obtained from the gall-bladder of the ox or sheep, without 

 coming into contact with air, does not exhibit the spectrum of cholo- 

 haBmatin, though in thin layers a somewhat indefinite absorption 

 band, having its centre at about X490, is visible. When, however, 

 such bile is shaken with, or exposed to, air, within an hour, the 

 absorption bands on either side of D commence to appear, the one 

 between D and E being the darker and more easily recognisable. 

 It is very much later that the complete spectrum of cholohaematin 

 is visible, i.e. that the bands near C and between E and b make 

 their appearance. 



It is, however, to be noted that the change which occurs in the 

 colour of the bile and in its spectroscopic appearances is not 



und ihre Absorptionsstreifen ' (with plate), Pfliiger's Archiv, Vol. iv. see 540 and 541 

 and spect. 12 (ale. ext. von fel tauri inspissat.). 



1 MacMunn, The Spectroscope in Medicine, London, 1880, see p. 158. 



- MacMunn, Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1883, no. 226. 



3 MacMunn, ' Bile Pigments and Others,' Journal of Physiology, Vol. vi. pp. 22 et seq, 

 see p. 28. 



