480 CHOLESTERIN. 



contained a distinct acid, chenotaurocholic acid, 

 C 29 H 49 ^N"S0 6 , very similar to tauroehloric acid, which, 

 when boiled with baryta- water, yields taurin and cheno- 

 colic acid, C 27 H 44 4 . 



3. Lithofellic acid, C 20 H 36 4 . Is the principal in- 

 gredient of a variety of oriental bezoars, and is pro- 

 bably a product of a metamorphosis of the ingredients 

 of the bile, taking place in the living body of a species 

 of goat or antelope. It can be extracted from the 

 bezoars with boiling alcohol. Crystallizes from alco- 

 hol in colorless, short prisms. Insoluble in water, 

 soluble in alcohol. Fuses at 204. "With sulphuric 

 acid and a solution of sugar, it gives the same reaction 

 as glycocholic acid. 



4. Cholesterin, C 26 H 44 -h H 2 = C 26 H 43 .OH. It is 

 extracted from evaporated bile by means of ether. It 

 is further an ingredient of the brain, the nerves, the 

 yolk of eggs, the yellow bodies in the ovary of the 

 cow, blood, meconium, of feces, and a number of hy- 

 dropic fluids. It has also been lately found in the 

 vegetable kingdom, and apparently it is here likewise 

 very widely distributed ; especially is it contained in 

 vegetable seeds, for example in rye, in barley, in peas, 

 in maize, and in all the young parts of plants. It is 

 collected in largest quantity in biliary calculi, which 

 often consist entirely of it. These concretions are dis- 

 solved in boiling alcohol, and then filtered ; on cooling 

 the cholesterin crystallizes out. 



It crystallizes from alcohol in colorless laminae, of a 

 pearly lustre, from a mixture of alcohol and ether in 

 regular, tabular prisms. Inodorous and tasteless ; 

 fuses at 145, and solidifies in crystalline form; heated 

 without access of air, it sublimes for the greater part 

 undecomposed. Insoluble in water, but slightly solu- 

 ble in cold alcohol. Caustic potassa, even by boiling, 

 produces no change in it. In dry chlorine gas, it be- 

 comes heated to fusing, hydrochloric acid gas being 

 evolved. When gradually and completely saturated 

 with chlorine gas, it forms a white, amorphous mass, 



