142 FORMATION OF BILE IN HERBIVORA. 



happen in no other way but this, that, as when it 

 passes into fat, a certain quantity of oxygen is separated 

 from the elements of the starch, which, for the same 

 amount of carbon (for 72 atoms), contains five times 

 as much oxygen as choloidic acid. 



Without the separation of oxygen from the elements 

 of starch, it is impossible to conceive its conversion 

 into bile ; and this separation being admitted, its con- 

 version into a compound, intermediate in composition 

 between starch and fat, offers no difficulty. 



46. Not to render^ these considerations a mere idle 

 play with formulae, and not to lose sight of our chief 

 object, we observe, therefore, that the consideration of 

 the quantitative proportion of the bile secreted in the 

 herbivora leads to the following conclusions : 



The chief constituents of the bile of the herbivora 

 contain nitrogen, and this nitrogen is derived from com- 

 pounds of proteine. 



The bile of this class of animals contains more car- 

 bon than corresponds to the quantity of nitrogenized 

 food taken, or to the portion of tissue, that has under- 

 gone metamorphosis in the vital process. 



A part of this carbon must, therefore, be derived 

 from the non-nitrogenized parts of the food (starch, 

 sugar, &c.) ; and in order to be converted into a ni- 

 trogenized constituent of bile, a part of the elements 

 of these bodies must necessarily have combined with 

 a nitrogenized compound derived from a compound of 

 proteine. 



In reference to this conclusion, it is quite indifferent 



