1908.] Destiny of Cholesterol in the Animal Organism. 117 



Table I. 



Exp. 



Duration 



of 

 experi- 

 ment, in 

 days. 



"Weight of 

 rabbit at 



beginning, 

 in kilo- 

 grammes. 



Weight 

 at end. 



Weight of 

 cholesterol 

 given. 



Weight of 

 bran, in 



kilo- 

 grammes. 



Weight of 

 dry 

 faeces. 



Total 

 unsaponi- 

 fiable 

 matter 

 dry, in 

 grammes. 



Weight of 

 crude 



cholesterol 

 recovered, 

 including 



phytosterol. 



II. 



14 



2-4 



2-4 





1 -12 



462 



1 -215 



0-4 of 



III. 



11 



2 '4 



2 -4 



2 



1 -oi 



497 



2-56 



phytosterol 

 1-5 



IV. 



11 



1-7 



1 -3 



2 



0-67 



312 



1 -46 



1 -11 



V. 



11 



1-7 



1 -6 



2 



0-73 



277 



2 -27 



1 -23—1 -4 



VI. 



11 



1-7 



1-7 



2 



0-73 



283 



3 13 



1 -4—1 -6 



published results ; (2) that when cholesterol is administered with the food a 

 portion of it is absorbed, in our experiments about 50 per cent. It is 

 also clear that vegetable food such as bran or grass can be freed from fat 

 and phytosterols by extraction with ether without impairing its feeding- 

 value. 



Is Cholesterol Absorbed from the Food by Carnivorous Animals ? 



In our former paper on the excretion of cholesterol by the dog* we 

 described experiments which, although they were carried out primarily for 

 the purpose of showing that the cholesterol content of the freces was a 

 function of the cholesterol in the food taken, may yet be considered as 

 evidence for the absorption of some cholesterol from the food in this animal. 

 But such evidence cannot be regarded as of the same conclusive nature as 

 that afforded by the experiments on the rabbit, because the cholesterol 

 content of the various foodstuffs given is not known with any degree of 

 certainty. The estimations of Dormeyerj-, for the cholesterol content of dry 

 muscle (0 - 23 per cent.), are perhaps as satisfactory as any, though they 

 probably err, if anything, in being too high. However, if we take such a 

 value and apply it to our own data we arrive at such results as the following. 

 In one experiment a dog in 20 days ate 7470 grammes of cooked beef and 

 mutton, the percentage of solids in which we found to be about forty. 

 Allowing for the fact that the meat did not consist entirely of muscle and 

 for variations of other kinds, we may perhaps halve Dormeyer's value in 

 this case. On this assumption, then, the animal consumed 3'4 grammes of 

 cholesterol, whereas - 8 gramme only was found in the faeces, so that a 

 disappearance of about 2'5 grammes of cholesterol is indicated. 



* ' Eoy. Soc. Proc.,' B, vol. 80, p. 227. 

 t ' Pfliig. Archiv,' vol. 61, p. 341. 



