224 PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 



Meconium is a dark brownish-green, pitchy, mostly acid mass 

 without any strong odor. It contains greenish-colored epithelium 

 cells, cell-detritus, numerous fat-globules, and cholesterin plates. 

 The amount of water and solids is respectively 720-800 and 280- 

 200 p. m. Among the solids we find mucin, bile-pigments and 

 bile-acids, cholesterin, fats, soaps, calcium and magnesium phos- 

 phates. Sugar and lactic acid, albuminous bodies (?) and peptones, 

 also leucin and tyrosin and the other products of putrefaction 

 occurring in the intestine are absent. Meconium may contain 

 undecomposed taurocholic acid, bilirubin and biliverdin, but it 

 does not contain any hydrobilirubin, which is considered as proof 

 of the non-existence of putrefactive processes in the digestive tract 

 of the foetus. 



In medico-legal cases it is sometimes necessary to decide whether 

 spots on linen or other substances are caused by meconium. In 

 such cases we have the following conditions. The spot caused by 

 meconium has a brownish-green color and can be easily separated 

 from the material because, on account of the ropy property of the 

 meconium, it is difficult to wet through. When moistened with 

 water it does not develop any special odor, but on warming with 

 dilute sulphuric acid it has a somewhat fetid odor. It forms with 

 water a slimy, greenish-yellow liquid containing brown flakes. The 

 solution gives with an excess of acetic acid an insoluble precipitate 

 of mucin ; on boiling it does not coagulate. The filtered, watery 

 extract gives GMELIN'S, but still better HUPPERT'S, reaction for 

 bile-pigments. The liquid precipitated by an excess of milk of 

 lime gives a nearly colorless filtrate, which after concentration gives 

 PETTENKOFER'S reaction. 



The contents of the intestine under abnormal conditions are per- 

 haps less the subject of chemical analysis than of an inspection or 

 microscopical investigation. On this account the question as to 

 the properties of the contents of the intestine in different diseases 

 cannot be thoroughly treated here. The question as to the differ- 

 ent processes which, so far as they are dependent on secretion and 

 absorption, cause an abnormal consistency, a thinning of the excre- 

 ments, possesses a certain interest. Such excrements may in part be 

 produced by arrested absorption of liquid from the intestine for 

 some reason or other, and in part caused by an increased secre- 

 tion or a transudation of liquids into the intestine. 



