1909.] Destiny of Cholesterol in the Animal Organism. 507 



output of - 098 gramme per day. If we take Dormeyer's* figure, 0*23, as 

 the percentage of cholesterol in dry muscle, and assume that the cooked meat 

 contained 62 per cent, of moisture,f the animal should have received in its 

 food some 2 - 7 grammes of cholesterol. A considerable quantity of cholesterol, 

 therefore, must have been absorbed by the animal, which was putting on 

 flesh during the whole experiment. 



II. A cat, which had previously been fed on a diet of cooked brain for 

 14 days, during which it lost weight from 2 - 9 to 2 - 5 kilogrammes, was fed 

 for 14 days on lean cooked horseflesh. During this period it devoured 

 2940 grammes of the meat, and its weights taken every other day were 2"5, 

 2 - 5, 2 - 7, 2-8, 2 - 9, and 2*8 kilogrammes. The total weight of dried faeces was 

 92 grammes, which gave 3*02 grammes of unsaponifiable matter. On 

 repeated crystallisation from alcohol, 0*588 gramme of pure coprosterol, 

 melting at 93° — 98° C, was obtained. The mother liquor on benzoylation 

 yielded a further quantity of coprosterol benzoate. The total coprosterol thus 

 obtained weighed T077 grammes, corresponding to an output of O077 gramme 

 per day. Calculating as before, the animal received in its food 2 - 56 grammes 

 of cholesterol. 



III. In this experiment a healthy cat was fed for 14 days on 1550 grammes 

 of lean cooked meat — beef and mutton. Its weight remained practically 

 constant during the experiment. 44 grammes of dry faeces were obtained, 

 which yielded 1*331 grammes unsaponifiable matter. On treatment this 

 gave 0"27 gramme of white crystalline matter, melting at 129° — -132°, which 

 appeared to be a mixture of cholesterol and coprosterol. A further quantity 

 as benzoate was isolated from the mother liquors. Total weight of cholesterol 

 and coprosterol, - 5486, corresponding to an output of - 032 gramme per 

 day. Calculating as before, the animal received in its food T35 grammes of 

 cholesterol. 



IV. As the experiments described are possibly open to the criticism 

 that the sameness of the diet over a long period may have affected the 

 metabolism, in this experiment we took four cats and feci them for seven 

 days on a diet of raw lean bullock's heart. The animals appreciated this 

 food and took it greedily. They consumed in seven days 5166 grammes, the 

 daily ration of each animal being of the same weight. On the eighth day 

 each animal had a meal of cooked wheat germ, which had previously been 

 freed from fat and phytosterol by extraction with ether, in order to sw^ep 

 out the gut. The feces were very oily in character and difficult to dry at 



* ' Pfliig. Archiv,' 1896, vol. 65, p. 99. 



t A sample of this cooked horseflesh was dried at 100° C. and found to contain 62 per 

 cent, of moisture. 



