234 



INTESTINAL DIGESTION 



assumes a crystalline form. In one analysis, from seven and a half 

 ounces (202.5 grams) of normal human feces (the entire quantity for the 

 twenty-four hours), 10.417 grains (0.675 gram) of stercorin were ob- 

 tained, the extract consisting entirely of crystals. This was all the 

 stercorin to be extracted from the regular daily evacuation of a healthy 

 male twenty-six years of age, weighing about one hundred and sixty 

 pounds (72.58 kilograms). In the absence of other investigations, the 

 daily quantity of this substance excreted may be assumed to be not far 

 from ten grains (0.648 gram). 



In many regards stercorin bears a close resemblance to cholesterin, 

 which is a monatomic alcohol. It is neutral, inodorous and insoluble 



in water and in a solution of 

 potassium hydrate. It is soluble 

 in ether and in hot alcohol, but 

 is almost insoluble in cold alco- 

 hol. A red color is produced 

 when it is treated with strong 

 sulphuric acid. It may easily be 

 distinguished from cholesterin, 

 however, by the form of its 

 crystals. 



Stercorin crystallizes in the 

 form of thin delicate needles, 

 frequently mixed with clear 

 rounded globules, which probably 

 are composed of the same sub- 

 stance in a non-crystalline form. 

 The crystals often are arranged 



in bundles. They are not to be confounded with excretin, which crys- 

 tallizes in the form of regular four-sided prisms, or with the thin rhom- 

 boidal or rectangular tablets of cholesterin. 



There can be no doubt in regard to the origin of the stercorin found 

 in feces. When the bile is not discharged into the duodenum, as proba- 

 bly is the case for a time in icterus accompanied with clay-colored 

 evacuations, stercorin is not to be discovered in the dejections. In one 

 case of this kind, in which the feces were subjected to examination, the 

 matters extracted with hot alcohol were entirely dissolved by boiling for 

 fifteen minutes with a solution of potassium hydrate, showing the 

 absence of cholesterin and stercorin. In another examination of the 

 feces from this patient, made nineteen days after, when the icterus had 

 almost entirely disappeared and the evacuations had become normal, 

 stercorin was discovered. These facts show that the cholesterin of the 



Fig. 49. Crystals of stercorin, X 20 (Flint, 1862; 

 recrystallized, 1897). 



