BILE-SALTS AND CHOLIC ACID 105 



In the bile of animals other than man or the ox are found a variety 

 of acids, which have as yet been very imperfectly studied but which 

 differ in composition and physical characteristics from one another 

 and from cholic acid. A common origin of these substances is probably 

 to be sought in hydro-aromatic radicals contained in the diet and derived 

 ultimately in all probability from vegetable tissues. 



The bile-salts are, in part at least, reabsorbed from the intestine, and 

 bile-salts administered by mouth cause a remarkable increase in the 

 secretion of bile, in fact, with the possible exception of salicylic acid, 

 the bile -salts appear to be the only true Cholagogues or stimulants of 

 the secretion of bile. 1 When they are injected into the blood or forced 

 into the blood owing to an obstruction of the bile-ducts, leading to 

 icterus or "jaundice," they have a markedly depressant action upon 

 the heart-muscle, slowing the beat very decidedly, and in large amounts 

 they dissolve the red blood-corpuscles just as the saponins do. Under 

 these circumstances bile -salts are probably excreted in part in the urine, 

 but no reliable method of confirming their presence in the urine has 

 yet been devised. For clinical purposes however, this is not an incon- 

 venience since the presence of bile in the circulating blood is always 

 evidenced by the appearance of Bile-pigments in the urine which are 

 readily detected in a variety of ways. 



REFERENCES. 



INOSITE: 



Starkenstein-' Zeit exp. Path. u. Therp., 1908-9, 5, p. 378. 



Rose: Biochem. Bull., 1912-13, 2, p. 21. 



Anderson: Jour. Biol. Chem., 1912, 11, p. 471; 1912, 12, pp. 97 and 447; 1912- 



1913, 13, p. 311; 1914, 17, pp. 141, 151, 165, 171; 1914, 18, pp. 425 and 441; 

 1915, 20, pp. 463, 475, 483, 493; 1916, 25, p. 391. 



Anderson and Bosworth: Ibid., 1916, 25, p. 399. 

 CHOLESTEROL: 



von Filrth: Biochem. Zeitschr., 1915, 49, p. 416. 

 Bang: Chemie und Biochemie der Lipoide. Wiesbaden, 1911. 

 Glikin: Chemie der Fette, Lipoide und Wachsarten. Berlin, 1913. 

 Lifschutz: Zeit. f. physiol. Chem., 1909, 58, p. 175; 1909, 63, p. 222. Biochem. 

 Zeit., 1913, 52, p. 206. Zeit. f. physiol. Chem., 1914, 91, p. 309; 1914, 92, p. 383; 



1914, 93, p. 209. 



Doree and Gardner: Proc. Roy Soc. B M 1908, 80, pp. 212 and 227; 1909, 81, p. 109. 

 Ellis and Gardner: Ibid., 1909, 81, pp. 129 and 505; 1912, 84, p. 461; 1912, 85, p. 



385; 1913, 86, p. 13. 



Fraser and Gardner: Ibid., 1909, 81, p. 230; 1910, 82, p. 559. 

 Doree: Biochem. Jour., 1909, 4, p. 72. 

 Gardner and Lander: .Biochem. Jour., 1913, 7, p. 576. Proc. Roy. Soc. B., 1914, 



87, p. 229. 

 Chalatow: Virchows Arch. Path. u. Anat., 1912, 207, p. 452. Beitr. Path. Anat. 



u. Allg. Path., 1914, 57, p. 85. 

 Anitschkow: Beitr. Path. Anat. u. Allg. Path., 1913, 56, p. 379; 1914, 57, p. 201. 



Deutsch. med. Wchnschr., 1913, 39, p. 741. 



Weltmann and Biach: Zeit. exp. Path. u. Therap., 1913, 14, p. 367. 

 Bailey: Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. and Med., 1914, 12, p. 68; 1915, 13, p. 60. 



1 In the opinion of some investigators, however, the increase in the secretion of bile 

 which results from the administration of bile-salts is no greater than that which would 

 be equivalent to the amount of bile-salts administered. 



