BILE SALTS. 395 



or bluish green. Bile obtained trom an executed person immediately 

 after death is golden yellow or yellow with a shade of brown. Still cases 

 occur in which fresh human bile from the gall-bladder has a green color. 

 The ordinary post-mortem bile has a variable color. The bile of cer- 

 tain animals has a peculiar odor; for example, ox-bile has an odor of 

 musk, especially on warming. The taste of bile is also different in 

 different animals. Human as well as ox bile has a bitter taste, with a 

 sweetish after-taste. The bile of the pig and rabbit has an intensely 

 persistent bitter taste. On heating bile to boiling it does not coagulate. 

 It contains (in the ox) only traces of true mucin, and its ropy properties 

 depend, it seems, chiefly on the presence of a nucleoalbumin similar to 

 nmcin (PAIJKULL). The bile from the animals investigated by HAM- 

 MARSTEN showed a similar behavior. HAMMARSTEN 1 has, on the con- 

 trary, found a true mucin in human bile. To all appearances this mucin 

 originates from the biliary passages, as he found it in the bile flowing 

 from the hepatic duct, and also because the mucous membrane of the 

 gall-bladder, according to WAHLGREN, 2 does not in man secrete any 

 mucin, but a mucin-like nucleoalbumin. 



The specific constituents of the bile are bile-acids combined with alkalies, 

 bile-pigments, and, besides small quantities of lecithin and phosphatides, 

 cholesterin, soaps, neutral fats, urea, ethereal sulphuric acid, traces of con- 

 jugated glucuronic acids, enzymes and mineral substances, chiefly chlorides, 

 besides phosphates of calcium, magnesium, and iron. Traces of copper 

 also occur. 



Bile-salts. The bile-acids w r hich thus far have best been studied 

 may be divided into two groups, the glycocholic and taurocholic acid 

 groups. As found by HAMMARSTEN, S a third group of bile-acids occurs 

 in the shark which are rich in sulphur, and like the ethereal sulphuric 

 acids they split off sulphuric acid on boiling with hydrochloric acid. 

 All glycocholic acids contain nitrogen, but are free from sulphur and 

 can be split, with the addition of water, into glycocoll (amino-acetic acid) 

 and a nitrogen-free acid, a cholic acid. All taurocholic acids contain 

 nitrogen and sulphur and are split, with the addition of water, into 

 taurine and a cholic acid. The reason for the existence of different glyco- 

 cholic and taurocholic acids depends on the fact that there are several 

 cholic acids. 



The conjugated bile-acid found in the shark, and called scymnol-sulphuric acid 

 by HAMMARSTEN, yields a.s cleavage products sulphuric acid and a non-nitrogenous 



1 Paijkull, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 12; Hammarsten, 1. c., Nova Act. (3), 16, 

 and Ergebnisse der Physiol., Bd. 4. 



2 Maly's Jahserber., 32. 



3 Hammarsten, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 24. 



