hemists believe are twin compounds of
glycocholate and taurocholate. These fatty compounds depend upon
stearine partly oxidized, that is deprived of a certain number of atoms
of hydrogen.

As the compounds of fatty acids with ammoniacal blood gelatine and
sodium carbonate, the ingredients of the bile also, develop into a
peculiar soap. In the economy of the body the bile acts as a soap. When
it is discharged into the duodenum, it changes the fats into so fine an
emulsion (chyle) that the microscopically fine drops of fat may be drawn
into the orifices of the lymph canals and conveyed to the circulatory
system, and the cleavage products of albumen produced by gastric
digestion, the peptones (leucin and tyrosin) are carried along with them
for the renewal of tissue cells consumed in respiration.

If a soda soap is requisite for the purpose just stated, it follows that
soda in the food is essential, as otherwise the supply of soda in the
blood albumen cannot be renewed, and the bile cannot get its necessary
supply of soda from blood albumen devoid of soda. Consequently, the
entire nutritive process is dependent upon bile, and the bile cannot
properly perform its function if denied soda.

In addition to carbonates of sodium, especially the hydrocarbonate known
as glycolate, the bile apparently contains ammonium sulphate combined
with hydrocarbon (taurin); but this results from the transposition of
sodium sulphate and gelatine. Gelatine contains six atoms of hydrocarbon
joined with two of ammonium carbonate, a group which is separable by
chemical action into five of carburetted hydrogen with ammonium
carbonate (leucin or gelatine milk), C_{5} H_{10}, CO_{2}, NH_{3}, and
into one of carburetted hydrogen with ammonium carbonate (glycin or
gelatine sugar), CH_{2}, CO_{2}, NH_{3}. This latter substance, gelatine
sugar, is not produced in the liver, as it exists already in the blood
gelatine. In an isolated condition it has the property, in virtue of its
ammoniacal acids and its carbonic acid bases and, therefore, of both
combined, its salts, of producing chemical fixation. This property is
conveyed to the undivided blood gelatine in which the gelatine sugar is
contained intramolecularly.

Since normal blood albumen is inconceivable without sulphur it is
absolutely essential, in accordance with our knowledge of the
constituents of the bile and their origin, that our nutriment should
contain a sufficiency of sodium sulphate, i