COMPOSITION OF THE BILE. 437 



FREKICHS. v. GORUP-BESANEZ. 



I. II. I. II. 



Water 860.0 859.2 822.7 898.1 



Solids 140.0 140.8 177.3 101.9 



Biliary salts 72.2 91.4 107.9 56.5 



Mucus and pigments 26.6 29.8 22.1 .14.5 



Cholesterin 1.6 2.6\ , 7 Q o n n 



Fat 3.2 9.2/ 



Inorganic substances 6.5 7.7 10.8 6.2 



Human liver-bile is poorer in solids than the bladder-bile. In 

 several cases it contained only 12-18 p. m. solids, but the bile in these 

 cases is hardly to be considered as normal. JACOBSEN found 22.4-22.8 

 p. m. solids in a specimen of bile. HAMMARSTEN, who had occasion to 

 analyze the liver-bile in seven cases of biliary fistula, has often 

 found 25-28 p. m. solids. In a case of a corpulent woman the quantity 

 of solids in the liver-bile varied between 30.10-38.6 p. m. in ten days. 

 BRAND 1 observed still higher figures, more than 40 p. m., in two 

 cases. This investigator suggests that the bile from an imperfect 

 fistula, when it is partly absorbed, is richer in solids than when it comes 

 from a perfect fistula. 



The molecular concentration of human bile, according to BRAND, 

 BONANNI, and STRAUSS, 2 is generally identical with that of the 

 blood, although the amount* of water and solids varies. The freezing- 

 point varies only between 0.54 and 0.58. This constancy of the 

 osmotic pressure is explained by the fact that in concentrated biles with 

 larger amounts of organic substances (with larger molecules) the amount 

 of inorganic salts is lower. 3 



Human bile, sometimes, but not always, contains sulphur in an ethereal 

 sulphuric-acid-like combination (HAMMARSTEN, OERUM, BRAND). The 

 quantity of such sulphur may even amount to J-f of the total sulphur. 

 We do not know the nature of these ethereal sulphuric acids. According 

 to OERUM 4 they are not precipitated by lead acetate, but are precipitated 

 by basic lead acetate, especially with ammonia. Human bile is habitually 

 richer in glycocholic than in taurocholic acid. In six cases of liver-bile 

 analyzed by HAMMARSTEN the relation of taurocholic to glycocholic acid 

 varied between 1 : 2.07 and 1 : 14.36. The bile analyzed by JACOBSEN 

 contained no taurocholic acid. 



As an example of the composition of human liver-bile the following 



1 Jacobsen, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., 6; Hammarsten, Nova Acta Reg. 

 Soc. Scient. Upsala, 16; Brand, Pfliiger's Arch., 90. 



2 Brand, 1. c.; Bonanni, Biochem. Centralbl., 1; Strauss, Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 

 1903. 



3 See Brand, I. c.; Hammarsten, 1. c. 



4 Skand. Archiv. f. Physiol., 16. 



