390 CHEMISTR Y OF THE DIGESTIVE PROCESSES, 



serum has been injected the tissues present a normal appearance and 

 contain no bile pigments, on the other hand, round the spot where the 

 corpuscles have been injected, the tissues contain, besides fluid blood, a 

 substance in flakes, varying in colour from dark orange to bright yellow, 

 composed of small spherical masses about a quarter of the size of red 

 corpuscles, which give Gmelin's reaction very readily. The same result 

 may be obtained on injecting crystallised haemoglobin, suspended in 

 water; here granular masses of a greenish-yellow colour are obtained, 

 which also give Gmelin's reaction. 



Spectra of bile. A considerable amount of continuous absorption at 

 both ends of the spectrum is found on examining the bile of any animal, 

 but in some animals the bile also shows well-marked absorption bands. 1 



Cholohtematin. The most characteristic of these band-spectra is that 

 exhibited by ox or sheep bile which has stood for some time in contact with 

 air. This spectrum, according to MacMunn, 2 " presents in a deep layer three 

 bands, in a thinner one four bands, and in a still thinner a fifth band at F is 

 visible." The spectrum is well seen in an alcoholic solution of evaporated ox 

 bile. Of the four well-marked bands, two lie close to the D line, on either side 

 of it ; a third lies in the red, immediately to the right of the C line ; and the 

 fourth covers the E and b lines. No pure material has yet been isolated, 

 so that it is not even known whether the spectrum is due to one or several 

 substances. MacMunn 3 has obtained an amorphous residue of a dark sap- 

 green colour, containing abundantly material which gives the spectrum, by 

 treating ox bile with absolute alcohol and acetic acid, alternately dissolving in 

 chloroform and ether, and washing the chloroform solution with water. This 

 material has been named cholohsematin by MacMunn, from its occurrence in 

 bile and its supposed origin from hsematin. 



The spectrum is not exhibited by fresh ox or sheep bile, 4 but is first 

 developed on standing in contact with air, probably from a chromogen present 

 in the fresh bile. The bands near D first appear, to be followed much later by 

 the other two ; the appearance of the spectrum is not a result of putrefaction. 5 



MacMunn 6 obtained a spectrum closely resembling that of ha3matoporphyrin 

 by the action of sodium amalgam on cholohaematin, prepared as above indicated, 

 from which he argues that the latter is a derivative of hsematin. 



The fresh bile of the mouse shows a well-marked band at F, corresponding 

 to the urobilin band ; and more or less distinct bands in the same position in 

 the bile of other animals indicate, according to MacMunn, traces of urobilin 

 in these fluids. Characteristic absorption-band spectra are also found in the 

 bile of the guinea-pig, pig, rabbit, and crow. Human bile shows no bands, but 

 an alcoholic extract exhibits a well-marked band at D ; these, as well as the 

 spectra of Gmelin's and Pettenkofer's reactions, are shown in Plate III. at 

 the end of this volume. 



Other constituents of bile. Besides the bile salts and bile pig- 

 ments, which are normally found only in the bile, other constituents are 

 present which are also found in other parts of the body; these are 

 cholesterin, fats, soaps, and lecithin, besides minute traces of urea and 

 of the diastatic ferment already mentioned. 



1 Bogomoloff, CentralU.f. d. med. Wissensch., Berlin, 1869, vol. vii. S. 530. 



2 "The Spectroscope in Medicine," London, 1880, p. 158. 



3 Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1885, vol. vi. p. 24. 



4 Bogomoloff, loc. cit.; Heynsius and Campbell, Arch. f. d. ges. PhysioL, Bonn, 1871, 

 Bd. iv. S. 540. 



5 Gamgee, "Physiological Chemistry," London, 1893, voL ii. p. 333; see also Hoppe- 

 Seyler, loc. cit. 



6 Loc. cit., p. 27. 



