314 SECEETION. 



and discharged into the blood of the hepatic veins ; nor can 

 Bernard and his followers ignore the fact that the liver does 

 not contain sugar during life ; although, as has been shown 

 by Pavy, and more specifically by M'Donnell, 1 sugar ap- 

 pears in the liver in great abundance soon after death. 



In the experiments that we have just detailed, which 

 are simply typical examples of numerous unrecorded obser- 

 vations, we attempted to verify the observations of Pavy 

 without losing sight of the facts observed by Bernard, and 

 to verify the experiments of Bernard in the face of the 

 apparently contradictory statements of Pavy. When an 

 animal is in perfect health, has been kept quiet before the 

 experiment, and a piece of the liver is taken from him by 

 two sweeps of the knife, the blood rinsed from it and the 

 tissue cut up into water already boiling, the whole operation 

 occupying only ten seconds ( as was the case in Experiment 

 III. ), the liver is as nearly as possible in the condition in 

 which it exists in the living organism. As this was done 

 repeatedly in animals during digestion and in the intervals 

 of digestion, and an extract thoroughly made without 

 finding any sugar, we regarded the experiments of Pavy as 

 entirely confirmed, and the fact demonstrated that the liver 

 does not contain sugar during life. On the other hand, 

 when we made the experiment on the liver as above 

 described, and, in addition, took specimens of the portal 

 blood and the blood from the hepatic veins, under strictly 

 physiological conditions ( as was done in Experiment IY. ), 

 and found no sugar in the portal blood or in the substance 

 of the liver, but an abundance in the blood of the hepatic 

 veins, it was impossible to avoid the conclusion that the 

 sugar was formed in the liver, and was washed out in the 

 blood as it passed through. 



In treating of the mechanism of the formation of sugar 

 in the liver, we will describe more fully the glycogenic mat- 

 ter ; but, taking into consideration the demonstration of the 



1 Loc. cit. 



