1907.] Destiny of Cholesterol in the Animal Organism. 223 
I. 0:2449 gave 0°7562 CO, and 0:2547 H,0. 
Ii, 02694 4 08343 CO. ,, 0°2908 H20. 
_ Found 
— A——_—, Calculated for 
I. II. CH; ,0. 
ene ae 84°21 84:05 84°37 
1c pe ee 11°56 11°99 11°46 
All attempts to prepare a crystalline acetate or benzoate of this substance 
failed. 
In the course of the tmvestigation we noticed that samples of faces 
collected during the winter season, when the animals were not fed entirely 
on grass, gave a lower yield of hippocoprosterol. Furthermore, an examination 
‘of the feeces of domestic rabbits, fed on cabbage, made for us by Mr. G. D. 
Knox, showed that with this food a different product was obtained, an 
account of which we reserve for a future communication. We therefore 
were led to suspect that the hippocoprosterol might be a constituent of the 
grass on which the animals fed. 
Examination of Grass. 
3°2 kilogrammes of the blades of grass obtained from the cuttings of a well- 
kept cricket pitch, fairly free from clover and other plants, were dried in 
thin layers in the air and extracted as before. The extract was dissolved 
in alcohol and decolorised with charcoal. The solution was now pale yellow 
and deposited a gelatinous solid mass which was readily worked up by 
methods previously described and obtained pure. The yield was 8 grammes, 
or 0°27 per cent., of the dry material. This body proved identical with 
hippocoprosterol, an important point which was confirmed by the following 
experiments :— 
(a) six grammes of the body were crystallised from benzene into three 
fractions, each of which gave a melting and solidifying point (79° and 77° 
respectively), the same as that of hippocoprosterol. 
(6) Equal weights of the body from grass were mixed separately aa 
equal weights of that from the horse, cow, sheep, and rabbit, The 
melting points remained unchanged. Finally, a sample from each of the 
five sources was mixed and the same result obtained. 
(c) The acetate and benzoate were made as before and proved identical 
with those from hippocoprosterol. They were saponified and yielded 
chippocoprosterol, melting at 79°. 
(ad) On analysis, the following figures were obtained :— 
