of Sugar in the Liver, in the presence of Peptones. 181 
Likewise, by the injection of peptone solutions directly into the 
portal circulation of dogs, Seegen found the amount of sugar in 
the liver increased two and even nearly three times above the 
normal amount. Lastly, by warming portions of freshly excised 
liver at 40° C., with a solution of peptone in water and some fresh, 
defibrinated blood, through which a constant current of air was made 
to pass, the amount of both sugar and total carbohydrates was con- 
siderably greater than under like conditions, but without peptones. 
The following experiment* taken from Seegen’s account, illustrates 
the average increase of carbohydrates under this method of treatment. 
Two portions of a dog’s liver taken 15 minutes after death, were 
mixed with 50 ¢.c. of water and 50 c.¢. of defibrinated blood. To 
one portion 5 grams of peptone were added and air passed through 
the mixture for 5 hours. Following are the results obtained in both: 
~ 
Wt. of portion Liver Total 
of liver. Method of treatment. sugar. carbohydrates. Glycogen. 
40 grams. without peptone and blood, 3°04 & 6:9 % 2°12 % 
LO with peptone and blood, 3°87 8:4 2°02 
Other experiments indicated that peptones themselves are without 
diastatic action and that the blood and air (to form oxyhaemoglobin) 
are by themselves without influence on the liver. Hence Seegen 
concludes that the liver cells, retained in a living condition by the 
action of blood rendered arterial by a current of air, are capable of 
forming from peptone more or less sugar; thus establishing, if true, 
that the animal organism is able to form carbohydrates from albu- 
minous material. 
This is certainly a very important question, for if Seegen’s views 
are correct they overthrow the long accepted belief in the origin of 
liver sugar in the hepatic glycogen. It is true that Bernard himself, 
before his discovery of glycogen, thought that the liver sugar origi- 
nated in albumin and there have always been, up to the present time, 
difficulties in explaining the origin of liver carbohydrates on the 
dehydration theory alone. Asis well known, a certain amount of 
glycogen is formed during a purely animal diet and in chronic cases 
of Diabetes the excretion of sugar is continued even on a pure albu- 
minious diet. Moreover, the suggestion has been before made that 
peptones in their passage through the liver undergo change. Thus 
Plosz and Gyergyait noticed that while considerable peptone was to 
be found in the blood of the mesenteric veins and more or less in 
* Pfliger’s Archiv, vol. xxviii, p. 123. 
+ Ueber Peptone und Ernahrung mit denselben. Pfliiger’s Archiv, vol. x, p. 536, 
