DIGESTION. 179 



watery or alcoholic solutions ; the only difference being that the color 

 of the solutions by the violet and blue rays is nearly pure yellow 

 instead of yellowish-green. 



The bile of the inferior animals can be taken in a state of freshness 

 and purity, and in sufficient quantity for examination, from the gall- 

 bladder immediately after death. It has also been collected by means 

 of an artificial fistula of the gall-bladder or of the common biliary duct. 

 Human bile, taken from the gall-bladder some hours after death, is 

 liable to be more or less altered from its normal condition. It has 

 been obtained in cases of accidental biliary fistula in man by Ranke* 

 and Jacobsen. ) According to Jacobsen its solid ingredients amount 

 .to about 22.5 parts per thousand; a little over one-third consisting of 

 mineral salts, the remaining two-thirds of organic matter. Both the 

 coloring matters were always present. The proportions of all the 

 ingredients w r ere as follows : 



COMPOSITION OF HUMAN BILE, ACCORDING TO THE ANALYSES OF JACOBSEN. 



\Yater 977.40 



Sodium glycocholate 9.94 



Cholesterine 0.54 



Free fats . 0.10 



Sodium palmitate and stearate .... 1.36 



Lecithine 0.04 



Other organic matters 2.26 



Sodium chloride ...... 5.45 



Potassium chloride . . . . . 0.28 



salts j Sodium phosphate 1.33 



I Lime phosphate 0.37 



[ Sodium carbonate 0.93 



1000.00 



In ox-bile, as shown by Berzelius, Frerichs, and Lehmann, the pro- 

 portion of both mineral and organic ingredients may be much greater 

 than the above, the biliary salts alone amounting to 90 parts per 

 thousand. Ranke found the average proportion of solid ingredients 

 31.6 ; and according to Robin | and Hoppe-Seyler, the biliary salts in 

 human bile from the gall-bladder may amount to from 30 to 100 per 

 thousand parts. In Jacobsen 's case the specific gravity of the bile was 

 but little over 1010 ; and we have found it, in human bile from the gall- 

 bladder, 1018. The general result of observations on this point is that 

 the bile becomes more concentrated in the gall-bladder, but acquires no 

 further ingredient except mucus. 



The most important constituents of the bile, so far as known, are 

 the biliary salts, sodium glycocholate and sodium taurocholate, already 

 described in Chapter VI. These salts are associated in the bile in 



* Physiologic des Menschen. Leipzig, 1872, p. 284. 

 f Revue des Sciences Me"dicales. Paris, 1874, p. 385. 

 J Les Humeurs. Paris, 1874, p. 656. 

 \ Physiologische Chemie. Berlin, 1878, pp. 299, 301. 



Organic 

 matters. 



Mineral 



