PHYSIOLOGY CHAP. 



subcutaneous injection of ^ of a drop of nicotine, while a 

 normal frog survived this dose without exhibiting the charac- 

 teristic symptoms of poisoning. Lastly, he saw that if the 

 hepatic parenchyma were triturated with alkaloids (nicotine or 

 hyoscyamine) the resulting extract had no toxic action on dogs. 

 This power of the liver to destroy or diminish the toxic action of 

 alkaloids does not hold for other organs. On triturating the 

 substance of the kidneys, e.g., with alkaloids, the latter keep their 

 toxic efficacy intact. 



Mineral poisons, again, can be partially absorbed and retained 

 in the liver cells, whence they are slowly turned out into the 

 intestine by means of the bile. Orfila was the first who drew 

 attention to this fact, subsequently confirmed by all toxicologists. 

 Compounds of lead, copper, arsenic, iron accumulate in the liver 

 in preference to any other organ. Special physiological import- 

 ance attaches to the absorption and storage of iron in the liver, 

 a fact correctly interpreted by Lussana in relation to the 

 haematogenic or haemoglobinogenic action of medicinal prepara- 

 tions of iron. In confirmation of this statement, Marfori (1893), 

 in Schmiedeberg's laboratory, found a special iron-protein com- 

 pound in the liver, to which he gave the name of ferratin, 

 analogous with the haematogen which Bunge discovered in the 

 yolk of egg, neither of which gives a direct iron reaction, when 

 treated with ammonium sulphate. 



Heger (1873-77) demonstrated the antitoxic action of the liver 

 by artificial circulation in the excised organ of defibrinated blood, 

 to which nicotine had been added. He observed that this blood 

 lost its characteristic odour after passing through the liver, the 

 alkaloid being partly retained by the liver cells. In subsequent 

 experiments he found that the liver was capable of absorbing 

 and retaining 25-50 per cent of the alkaloids passed through it 

 (strychnine, quinine, morphine, and nicotine), while none were 

 retained by the lungs, and very little by the muscles. 



In accordance with Schiffs observations, Lautenbach stated 

 that one drop of nicotine sufficed to kill a large dog, with manifesta- 

 tions of tetanus, when the injection was made into the general 

 circulation, while two drops could be injected into the mesenteric 

 veins without inducing death or symptoms of tetanus, simple 

 phenomena of narcotic poisoning only being manifested. From 

 this Lautenbach concluded that nicotine contains two toxic 

 groups, one of which alone (i.e. that which produces tetanus) is 

 retained by the liver. Eeue opposed these conclusions on the 

 strength of new experiments. 



More extended researches with a larger number of alkaloids 

 were made by Jacques, and particularly by Eoger (1886, 1887, 1889, 

 1892), in support of the theory that the liver stored up and partially 

 transformed the poisons that reached it from the digestive canal 



