412 THE LIVER. 



Quantitative Composition of the Bile. Complete analyses of human 

 bile have been made by HOPPE-SEYLER and his pupils. The bile was 

 removed from the gall-bladder of cadavers, hence these analyses can 

 be of little interest. Older and less complete analyses of perfectly fresh 

 human bile have been made by FRERICHS and v. GoRUP-BESANEZ. 1 

 The bile analyzed by them was from perfectly healthy persons who 

 had been executed or accidentally killed. The two analyses of 

 FRERICHS are, respectively, of (I) an 18-year-old and (II) a 22-year- 

 old male. The analyses of v. GORUP-BESANEZ are of (I) a man of 49 

 and (II) a woman of 29. The results are, as usual, in parts per 1000. 



FRERICHS. 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\ A7 ~ Qn Q 



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 repeatedly 

 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 2 observed still higher figures, more than 40 p. m., in a couple 

 of 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, S is nearly always 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. 4 



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



*See Hoppe-Seyler Physiol. Chem., 301; Socoloff, Pfluger's Arch., 12; Trifanow- 

 ski, ibid., 9; Frerichs in Hoppe-Seyler's Physiol. Chem., 299; v. Gorup-Besanez, ibid. 



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

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



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

 1903. 



4 See Brand, 1. c.; Hammarsten, 1. c. 



