Soda . . . . . | Potash . . . . | Inorganic salts . 16·56 Iron . . . . . | Whereas a specimen of normal bile taken from the gall-bladder of a woman aged sixty-one, was of a specific gravity of 1020, and contained in 1000 parts:-- Water . . . . 933·27 Solids . . . 66·73 ------ 1000·00 ======= {84} Pigment . . . . | Bile acids . . | Organic matter . 56·73 Cholesterine . | Sugar . . . . . | Soda . . . . . | Potash . . . . | Inorganic salts . 10·00 Iron . . . . . | The difference in composition of these two biles is very striking. The one contains more than four times as much solid matter as the other; and if the relative amount of organic, and inorganic substances be compared, the curious fact is observed, that the difference in the amount of solids in the two cases, is almost entirely due to the change in quantity of organic matter. The inorganic salts have not even so much as doubled themselves in the abnormal bile. Whence is this? Soda is the chief inorganic substance found in bile, and we have seen that it occurs in the form of glycocholate, and taurocholate of soda, substances which, as before remarked, are re-absorbed from the distended ducts, and gall-bladder into the circulation, from whence they are constantly being eliminated with the urine; and this, no doubt, is one of the causes why the inorganic salts are proportionally in such small quantity in the abnormal bile of jaundice from obstruction. {85} Fifthly,--In the abdomen was a considerable quantity of dark straw-coloured serum, which on the addition of strong sulphuric acid became of a fine emerald-green colour, in consequence of the presence of bile. Traces of sugar were also present in the effused liquid. The serum had only collected in the latter weeks of the patient's life, and after the shrinking of the liver was observed to have begun.