62 CHEMICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



LESSON IX. 

 THE BILE. 



1. Use ox bile obtained from the butcher. 



(a.) Observe the colour of bile of man and that of the ox, 

 the former is a brownish-yellow, the latter greenish, but 

 often it is reddish-brown when it stands for a short time. 



(b.) Dilute bile and test its reaction = alkaline or neutral. 



(c.) Pour some ox bile from one vessel to another, and 

 note that it is sticky, strings of mucin connecting the one 

 vessel with the other. 



(d.) Dilute bile with 5 volumes of water, add dilute 

 acetic acid, which precipitates the mucin coloured with the 

 pigments. Or, dilute bile with its own volume of water, 

 and precipitate the mucin with alcohol. Filter, and observe 

 that the nitrate is no longer sticky, but flows like a watery 

 non-viscid fluid. The mucin remaining on the filter may 

 be washed with dilute spirit and dissolved in lime water. 



(e.) Bile gives no reactions for albumin. 



(/.) Fresh human bile gives no spectrum, although the 

 bile of the ox, mouse, and some other animals does. 



(</.) Bile, besides the ordinary salts, contains so much 

 iron as to give the ordinary reactions for iron. To bile add 

 hydrochloric acid and potassic ferrocyanide. A blue colour 

 indicates the presence of iron. It is better to use the 

 filtrate of (d.) free from mucin. 



If fresh bile is not obtainable, use a watery solution of the 

 " Fel bovinum " of the Pharmacopoeia. 



2. To Prepare the Bile Salts or Bilin (glycocholate and tauro- 

 cholate of sodium). 



(a.) Mix ox bile with animal charcoal in a mortar to 

 form a thick paste. Evaporate to complete dryness over a 



