116 ON A NEW TEST FOR BILE AND SUGAR. 
may be substituted for the cane-sugar. The same result was 
obtained with the bile of man, the fox, dog, ox, pig, fowl, 
frog and carp. The author concludes from this, that the 
bile of all the Vertebrata agrees chemically in containing 
choleic acid combined with soda. 
By means of this test the author detected bile in the urine 
of a patient afflicted with pneumonia. The faeces of a 
healthy man, when extracted with spirit and treated as 
above, did not yield the slightest reaction, whilst on adding 
a little bile previously to the faeces it was perfectly develop- 
ed. In the stools produced by calomel, several observers 
have remarked that the green or yellowish green colour is 
converted into red by treating them with mineral acids; by 
applying the sugar and acid, the same phenomena are pro- 
duced. In all cases of diarrhoea, bile is found in the stools. 
The author imagines that the alterative effects of purgatives 
might be thus explained, by their carrying off the bile as 
fast as it is secreted, consequently preventing its absorption. 
Concentrated muriatic acid heated with bile and sugar 
likewise produces a red colour, but this is much lighter and 
less beautiful than with sulphuric acid. 
This test may also be adopted for the detection of sugar. 
If sugar be suspected in a liquid, urine for instance, an 
aqueous solution of ordinary ox-gall is gradually treated 
with sulphuric acid, until the precipitated choleic acid is 
again redissolved ; the suspected urine is then added, where- 
upon the violet-red colour is produced. As the quantity of 
sugar present is usually small, it is best previously to con- 
centrate it. To detect bile in blood, the albumen is first 
separated by ebullition with spirit, and the concentrated 
fluid treated as above. If this test is used for sugar, the 
absence of starch must be previously proved by iodine. 
The author thinks his test better than Tromrner's in the 
examination of blood and urine, both because it acts more 
rapidly and delicately, and because its action is uninter- 
rupted by the ammoniacal salts of the urine, the free am- 
