1912.] Destiny of Cholesterol in the Animal Organism. 15 



Diet III. — Total per diem : — 



Herring-roe 500 grm. 



Potato 800 „ 



Butter 130 „ 



Sugar 80 „ 



100 grm. of tinned herring-roe (soft) of the kind taken during the 

 experiment was found to contain 0"595 per cent, of cholesterol — free and 

 combined. The total cholesterol ingested was, therefore, 2 - 975 + 0-227 

 = 3 202 grm. per diem. 



Treatment of the Fceces. 



The faeces were supplied to us in a dry, finely powdered condition. Those 

 from each series were thoroughly extracted witli ether in a Soxhlet 

 apparatus, and the fatty matter in the ethereal solution saponified with 

 sodium ethylate. After separating the soap, the ethereal solution was 

 thoroughly washed with water and evaporated to dryness. From the 

 residues it was found possible to isolate a quantity of pure coprosterol by 

 fractional crystallisation from alcohol. The mother-liquors were evaporated 

 to dryness, and the residual coprosterol benzoated by means of benzoyl 

 chloride in pyridine solution. The faeces from Series I, III, and IV, 

 containing an excessive amount of oily impurity, rendered the isolation of 

 pure coprosterol benzoate so difficult that the residues were further treated 

 with digitonin, and in this way an amount of digitonin coprosteride was 

 obtained. In order to be certain that the compound so formed was none 

 other than the coprosteride, we recovered the coprosterol in combination by 

 means of the xylene method. 



Results of Analysis. 



Series I. — In this series the subject was fed on an ordinary mixed diet 

 for seven days. Five stools were passed, and yielded 167'7 grm. of dry 

 material. The patient's weight was practically constant, varying from day 

 to day from 7o - 8 to 76'2 kgrm. — average 75 - 99. 



The faeces yielded on extraction 6 - 7445 grm. of unsaponifiable matter, 

 from which 44669 grm. of coprosterol were obtained. This would corre- 

 spond to a yield of 0595 grm. per day. This daily output corresponds very 

 closely to that found in the cases of one of us and another colleague on 

 liberal diet from observations extending over a year. Faeces from a public 

 latrine, however, yielded a smaller quantity. 



Series II. — The subject was then fed for seven days on Diet I. His 

 average weight was 75 3 kgrm., and varied on six of the clays as follows : 

 76, 75-3, 75 - 3, 75, 75, 75-6. Four stools were passed, corresponding to 



