304: SECKETION. 



function of the liver, there have been few who have denied 

 the proposition that the portal blood does not contain sugar 

 except during absorption of this principle from the alimen- 

 tary canal. Figuier, who made an elaborate series of inves- 

 tigations on this subject with the view of invalidating the 

 experiments of Bernard, assumed that this proposition was 

 incorrect, and that the portal blood carries sugar to the liver 

 during the digestion of starchy and saccharine matters, where 

 it is retained, 1 and, furthermore, that there is sugar in the 

 blood of the portal vein during the digestion of raw meat. 2 

 From these and other observations, Figuier concludes that 

 the liver does not produce sugar, but that the sugar, brought 

 to this organ by the portal blood, is here stored up, to be 

 passed, little by little, into the blood of the hepatic veins. 3 



These conclusions cannot be accepted, for the reason that 

 the evidence of the presence of sugar in the portal blood of 

 animals during the digestion of meat is far from satisfac- 

 tory. A commission of the French Academy of Sciences, 

 composed of MM. Dumas, Pelouze, and Rayer, after a careful 

 examination of the extracts of the portal blood presented by 

 M. Figuier, decided that the evidence of the presence of sugar 

 was insufficient, and came to the conclusion "that sugar 

 was not appreciable in the blood of the portal vein of a dog 

 fed on raw meat." * This seems to settle the question, as far 

 as the observations of M. Figuier are concerned, the report 

 of the commission being pretty generally accepted as con- 

 clusive. 6 



1 FIGUIER, Memoire sur Vorigine du sucre dans le foie et sur T existence normale 

 du sucre dans le sang de Vhomme et des animaux. Comptes rendus, Paris, 1855, 

 tome xi, p. 228. 



2 FIGUIER, Deuxieme memoire d propos de la fonction glycogenique du foie. 

 Comptes rendus, Paris, 1855, tome xl., p. 674. 



3 FIGUIER, Troisieme memoire sur la fonction glycogenique du foie. Comptes 

 rendus, Paris, 1855, tome xli., p. 352. 



4 DUMAS, Rapport sur divers memoires relatifs auxfonctions du foie. Comptes 

 rendus, Paris, 1855, tome xl., p. 1281. 



5 BERARD, Note additionnelle au memoire lu d V Academic dans la seance du 19 

 mai, 1857. Gazette hebdomadaire, Paris, 1857, tome iv., p. 414. 



