SPECIFIC CONSTITUENTS OF BILE. 
371 
bile has been shown not to be mucin but a nucleo-albumin. Other 
substances present in bile are — (1) the alkaline salts of certain organic; 
acids known as the bile acids: (2) the bile pigments; (3) traces of 
lecithin, cholesterin, soaps, and fats ; (4) mineral salts. 
Both the total and relative amount of each of these several con- 
st it iients or group of constituents is very variable, as is shown by the 
following table of analyses of human bile made by different observers. 
The numbers indicate parts by weight contained in 1000 parts by 
weight of bile : x — 
Fresh Bile from Gall Bladder. 
Water 
Total solids 
Sodium gly- 
cocholate 
Sodium taur- 
ocholate 
Cholesterin 
Lecithin 
Fats . 
Soaps . 
Mucin pig- 
ment, epi- 
thelium, 
etc. 
Inorganic 
salts 
860-0 
140-0 
-102-2 
1-6 
3 2 
I 26 6 
859-2 
110-8 
91-4 
2-6 
9-2 
■_,;,.. 
v. Gorup-Besanez. 3 
822-7 
177-3 
898-1 
101-9 
107-9 56-5 
L 
47-3 
22-1 
10 8 
30-9 
14-5 
6-3 
Bile from Fistil.f:. 
Yeo and l ^ n( j Mayo 
Herroun.5 vWnston.e Robson." 
977-4 987-16 ' 985-77 
22-6 
10-1- 
0-56 
0-05 
12-84 
1-65 
0-55 
1-50 ) 
2-3 
8-5 
0-38 
1-48 
8-41 
14-23 
I 6-28 
0-99 
1-72 
4-51 
Hsl'Os 
18-02 
7-51 
0-09 
r 0-45 
0-12 
, 0-97 
1-30 
388-08 984-79 
11-92J 15-27 
3-56 
0-49 
0-53 
0-09 
0-15 
7-09 
3-49 
0-7i 
4-61 
6-41 
The samples of bile from the gall bladder, analysed by Frerichs and by v. 
Gorup-Besanez, were obtained immediately after death from healthy subjects, 
the others were from biliary fistula? of long standing. 
Specific Constituents of Bile. 
Nucleo-proteid. of bile. — Landwehr 9 first drew attention to the fact 
that the percentage composition of the mucin of bile was different from 
that of other mucins, and that no reducing sugar was formed on heating 
it with a mineral acid, but attempted to explain this by assuming that 
1 Extracted partially from Bunge, "Lehrbuch der physiol. und pathol. Chemie," 
Leipzig, 1894, S. 192 ; and partially from Noel Paton and Balfour, Rep. Lab. Boy. Coll. 
Fhijs., Edin., 1891, vol. iii. p. 191. 
2 Hannover. Ann. f. d. ges. Hcilk., 1845, N\F. Bd. v. S. 42. 
3 Prager. Vrtljschr. f. prakt. Pharmacol., 1851,. Bd. iii. S. 86. 
4 Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Gesellsch., Berlin, 1873, Bd. vi. S. 1026. 
5 Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1884, vol. v. p. 116. 
G Ibid., 1889, vol. x. p. 213. 
7 Proc. Boy. Soc. London, 1890, vol. xlvii. p. 499. 
8 Loc. cit. 
9 Ztschr.f. 'physiol. Chem., Strassburg, 1881, Bd. v. S. 371. 
