390 CHEMISTR Y OF THE DIGESTIVE PROCESSES. 
serum has been injected the tissues present a normal appearance and 
contain no bile pigments, on the other hand, round the spot where the 
corpuscles have been injected, the tissues contain, besides fluid blood, a 
substance in flakes, varying in colour from dark orange to bright yellow, 
composed of small spherical masses about a quarter of the size of red 
corpuscles, which give Gmelin's reaction very readily. The same result 
may be obtained on injecting crystallised haemoglobin, suspended in 
water; here granular masses of a greenish-yellow colour are obtained, 
which also give Gmelin's reaction. 
Spectra of bile. — A considerable amount of continuous absorption at 
both ends of the spectrum is found on examining the bile of any animal, 
but in some animals the bile also shows well-marked absorption bands. 1 
Clwlohcematin. — The most characteristic of these band-spectra is that 
exhibited by ox or sheep bile which has stood for some time in contact with 
air. This spectrum, according to MacMunn, 2 "presents in a deep layer three 
bands, in a thinner one four bands, and in a still thinner a fifth band at F is 
visible." The spectrum is well seen in an alcoholic solution of evaporated ox 
bile. Of the four well-marked bands, two lie close to the D line, on either side 
of it; a third lies in the red, immediately to the right of the C line; and the 
fourth covers the E and b lines. Xo pure material has yet been isolated, 
so that it is not even known whether the spectrum is due to one or several 
substances. MacMunn 3 has obtained an amorphous residue of a dark sap- 
green colour, containing abundantly material which gives the spectrum, by 
treating ox bile with absolute alcohol and acetic acid, alternately dissolving in 
chloroform and ether, ami washing the chloroform solution with water. This 
material has been named choloh?ematin by MacMunn, from its occurrence in 
bile and its supposed origin from hsematin. 
The spectrum is not exhibited by fresh ox or sheep bile, 4 but is first 
developed on standing in contact with air, probably from a chromogen present 
in the fresh bile. The bands near D first appear, to be followed much later by 
the other two ; the appearance of the spectrum is not a result of putrefaction. 5 
MacMunn t; obtained a spectrum closely resembling that of haematoporphyrin 
by the action of sodium amalgam on choloha?matin, prepared as above indicated, 
from which he argues that the latter is a derivative of hsematin. 
The fresh bile of the mouse shows a well-marked band at F, corresponding 
to the urobilin band; and more or less distinct bands in the same position in 
the bile of other animals indicate, according to MacMunn, traces of urobilin 
in these fluids. Characteristic absorption-band spectra are also found in the 
bile of the guinea-pig. pig, rabbit, and crow. Human bile shows no bands, but 
an alcoholic extract exhibits a well-marked band at D ; these, as well as the 
spectra of Gmelin's and Pettenkofer's reactions, are shown in Plate III. at 
the end of this volume. 
Other constituents of bile.— Besides the bile salts and bile pig- 
ments, which are normally found only in the bile, other constituents are 
present which are also found in other parts of the body ; these are 
cholesterin, fats, soaps, and lecithin, besides minute traces of urea and 
of the diastatic ferment already mentioned. 
1 Bogomoloff, Centralbl. f. d. med. Wissensch., Berlin, 1869, vol. vii. S. 530. 
2 "The Spectroscope in Medicine," London, 1880, p. 158. 
3 Journ. Physiol., Cambridge and London, 1885, vol. vi. p. 24. 
4 Bogomoloff, loc. cit.; Heynsius and Campbell, Arch. f. d. ges. Physio/.. Bonu, 1871, 
Bd. iv. S. 540. 
5 Gamgee, "Physiological Chemistry," London. 1S93, vol. ii. p. 333: see also Hoppe- 
Seyler, loc. cit. 
6 Loc. cit., p. 27. 
