10 Mr. T. Taylor on a new Species of Biliary Calculus. 



In all these cases the acids retained lime in solution. The 

 fatty matter separated by the action of acids was partially so- 

 luble in boiling alcohol, and the solution on cooling deposited 

 shining crystalline scales. With caustic potass it formed a 

 ropy almost gelatinous solution, and was precipitated in white 

 flakes on the addition of an acid. A small piece being placed 

 upon the ball of a thermometer previously heated, began to 

 solidify when the temperature had sunk to about 135° Fahr. 



From these experiments I concluded that this calculus 

 consisted of margarate, or stearate of lime, mixed probably 

 with the oleate of the same base and some of the other con- 

 stituents of the bile. That the lime was in combination with 

 the fatty acid, was indicated by the insolubility of the calculus 

 either in alcohol or caustic alkaline solutions, until it had 

 been previously digested in some acid. 



The minute quantities on which I had hitherto operated 

 prevented me from determining whether only one or more of 

 the fatty acids were present. The following analysis was 

 therefore made. 



Analysis. — 12*80 grs. of the calculus previously dried in 

 vacuo over sulphuric acid were boiled in distilled water : a 

 peculiar odour was given off, and the water acquired a yel- 

 lowish-brown colour: being evaporated to dryness it left a 

 transparent resinous-looking residue, which weighed 0*84. 

 This residue when digested in alcohol left 0'24 in the form 

 of dirty yellow flakes, which in distilled water swelled up and 

 ultimately dissolved, forming a solution which in its chemical 

 characters exactly resembled that of the mucus of the gall 

 bladder. 



The alcoholic solution being evaporated to dryness, the re- 

 sidue was redissolved in water ; the solution was intensely 

 bitter ; with muriatic acid it gave a copious viscid precipi- 

 tate : acetate of lead produced likewise a viscid precipitate, 

 and the supernatant liquor when clear was again troubled by 

 a solution of subacetate of lead. 



The 0'84 consisted therefore of mucus of the gall bladder 

 0*24 ; inspissated bile 0*60. 



After water had extracted from the calculus all that it was 

 capable of dissolving, it was treated with successive portions 

 of boiling alcohol sp. gr. '830. 



The first alcoholic solution on cooling deposited a white 

 matter, which did not readily redissolve in hot alcohol or 

 aether, but was acted upon by acetic acid. It appeared to be 

 part of the calculus that had been dissolved unchanged ; the 

 quantity was however too minute to be estimated. The al- 

 coholic solutions were filtered, and being mixed together, the 



