of Edinburgh, Session 1874-75. 
525 
Dividing into oxides having the general formula M 2 0 3 and M 3 0 4 
respectively (Fe 2 0 3 , MgTiO b , FeTi0 3 ; and Fe 3 0 4 ) we have, — 
These numbers are nearly in the proportion of 3:2, and the compo- 
sition of this sand might he nearly represented by the formula, 
The composition, however, nearly agrees with that of sands held 
by Rammelsberg, with good reason, to be mixtures. 
2. On some Permian Fishes, hitherto erroneously referred 
to the Genus Palceoniscus. By Dr Traquair. 
3. Note on the Action of Bile Salts on the Animal Economy. 
By J. Graham Brown, Esq. Communicated by Dr 
M‘Kendrick. 
The investigations recorded in this paper were undertaken for 
the purpose of elucidating the action of the bile salts on the ani- 
mal economy. The chief workers in this field of inquiry have 
been Frerichs and Kiihne, and the results obtained have been to a 
great extent contradictory. 
The most important conclusions at which Frerichs arrives, are : — 
(1.) That injections of bile into the blood of the lower animals are 
followed by no important derangement of the vital functions ; 
(2.) That bile pigment is excreted in considerable quantity by the 
urine after injections of decolorised bile ; (3.) That unchanged bile 
acids are never found in the urine after such injections. — (“Clinical 
Treatise on Diseases of Liver,” vol. i. p. 394.) 
Kiihne, on the other hand, affirms with an equal degree of posi- 
tiveness : — (1.) That biliary acids are not decomposed in the 
blood. In whatever manner they find their way into that fluid they 
are afterwards excreted unchanged by the kidneys ; (2.) After in- 
jections into the veins of colourless solutions of bile salts, bile 
pigment may appear in the urine (as stated by Frerichs), but it is 
due to the property possessed by the bile acids of dissolving the 
Oxygen in M 2 0 3 
„ „ M 0 4 
17*34 
12-00 
