320 SECRETION. 



vertible into sugar. The experiments of Bernard, of Pavy, 

 and all, indeed, agree upon this point. The question of the 

 existence of the same amyloid matter in other tissues and 

 organs is only pertinent in so far as it bears upon the pro- 

 duction of sugar or upon the formation of the glycogenic 

 matter in the liver. In no tissue or organ in the adult has 

 it been demonstrated that there is any formation of sugar, 

 except the ordinary transformation of starch into sugar in 

 the process of digestion ; but it has been claimed that amy- 

 loid matter is contained in the flesh of herbivorous animals, 

 and is taken up by the carniv.ora and deposited in the liver. 

 M. Sanson has made two elaborate communications on this 

 subject, and concludes, from his own experiments, that the 

 liver has no glycogenic function. 1 These experiments were 

 repeated by M. Sanson in the presence of a commission from 

 the French Academy of Medicine, composed of MM. Bouley, 

 Poggiale, and Longet, and were reported upon to the Acad- 

 emy. The conclusions of the commission were unreservedly 

 in favor of the glycogenic function of the liver ; and out of 

 a great number of observations, in only one was any amyloid 

 matter discovered in butcher's meat. 3 It was found normally 

 in horse-flesh, and, as subsequent experiments showed, could 

 be produced in the muscular tissue of various of the her- 

 bivora, by feeding them upon certain articles, particularly 

 oats and barley. 3 



If the liver taken from an animal freshly killed be simply 

 kept at about the temperature of the body, after it has been 

 drained of blood, or even after it has been washed through 

 the vessels, sugar will be rapidly formed in its substance. 



1 SANSON, De Vorigine du sucre dans feconomie animate. Journal de la 

 physiologic, Paris, 1858, tome i., p. 244, et seq., and Sur Vexistence de la matiere 

 glycogene dans tous les organes des herbivores et sur Vinfluence de V alimentation sur 

 la production de cette substance. Journal de la physiologic, Paris, 1859, tome ii., 

 p. 104, et seq. 



2 POGGIALE, Sur la formation de la matidre glycogene dans V economic animale. 

 Journal de la physiologic, Paris, 1858, tome i., p. 549, et seq. 



3 BERNARD, Liquides de Vorganisme, Paris, 1859, tomeii., p. 111. 



