IN MAN AND ANIMALS. 63 



If we assume the bile to contain 90 per cent, of 

 water, a horse secretes daily 592 oz. of bile, containing 

 59-2 oz. of solid matter ; while 7| Ibs. or 120 oz. of 

 dried excrement yield only 6 oz. of matter soluble in 

 alcohol, which might possibly be bile. But this matter 

 is not bile ; when the alcohol is dissipated by evapora- 

 tion, there remains a soft, unctuous mass, altogether in- 

 soluble in water, and which, when incinerated, leaves no 

 alkaline ashes, no soda. (10) 



During the digestive process, therefore, the soda of 

 the bile, and, along with it> all the soluble parts of that 

 fluid, are returned into the circulation. This soda re- 

 appears in the newly formed blood, and, finally, we find 

 it in the urine in the form of phosphate, carbonate, and 

 hippurate of soda. Berzelius found in 1,000 parts of 

 fresh human faeces only nine parts of a substance similar 

 to bile ; 5 ounces, therefore, would contain only 21 

 grains of dried bile, equivalent to 210 grains of fresh 

 bile. But a man secretes daily from 9,640 to 11,520 

 grains of fluid bile, that is, from 45 to 56 times as much 

 as can be detected in the matters discharged by the 

 intestinal canal. 



Whatever opinion we may entertain of the accuracy 

 of the physiological experiments, in regard to the quan- 

 tity of bile secreted by the different classes of animals ; 

 thus much is certain, that even the maximum of the 

 supposed secretion, in man and in the horse, does not 

 contain as much carbon as is given out in respiration. 

 With all the fat which is mixed with it, or enters into 

 its composition, dried bile does not contain more than 



