PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN THE LIVER. 315 



presence of sugar in the blood of the hepatic veins by Ber- 

 nard ; his discovery of the post-mortem production of sugar 

 in a liver washed sugar-free, probably from a substance re- 

 maining in the liver and capable of being transformed into 

 sugar ; the negative results of the examinations of the liver 

 for sugar by Pavy ; and, adding to this our own experiments 

 upon all of these points, we are justified in adopting the fol- 

 lowing conclusions : 



1. A substance exists in the healthy liver, which is capa- 

 ble of being converted into sugar ; and inasmuch as this is 

 formed into sugar during life, the sugar being washed away 

 by the blood passing through the liver, it is perfectly proper 

 to call it glycogenic, or sugar-forming matter. 



2. The liver has a glycogenic function, which consists in 

 the constant formation of sugar out of the glycogenic matter, 

 this being carried away by the blood of the hepatic veins, 

 which always contains sugar in a certain proportion. This 

 production of sugar takes place in the carnivora, as well as 

 in those animals that take sugar and starch as food ; and it 

 is, essentially, independent of the kind of food taken. 



3. During life, the liver contains only the glycogenic 

 matter and no sugar, because the great mass of blood which 

 is constantly passing through this organ washes out the 

 sugar as fast as it is formed ; but after death, or when the 

 circulation is interfered with, the transformation of glyco- 

 genic matter into sugar goes on ; the sugar is not removed 

 under these conditions, and can then be detected in the sub- 

 stance of the liver. 



Characteristics of the Liver-Sugar. Very little is to be 

 said regarding the chemical peculiarities of liver-sugar. It 

 resembles glucose, or the sugar resulting from the digestion 

 of starch, in its composition, having for its formula, in a 

 crystalline form, C ia H u O 14 . The formula for the anhydrous 

 sugar is C 12 H 12 O 12 . This sugar, like glucose, responds 

 promptly to all of the copper-tests, and undergoes trans- 



