ABDOMINAL NEEVES. 24:3 



The disturbances in the circulation are somewhat similar to 

 those occasionally observed in the lungs. The vessels are 

 strongly injected, and sometimes contain clots of blood. 

 The hepatic tissue is more friable than usual, and presents a 

 greenish-black color. 



The most important experiments upon the innervation 

 of the liver are those of Bernard, and relate to its glycogenic 

 function. TTe shall have little to say on this subject, how- 

 ever, in addition to what we have already stated in treating 

 of the liver as a sugar-producing organ. 1 The view which 

 we have advanced with regard to the glycogenic function is 

 that the liver is constantly producing sugar during life, 

 which is completely washed out by the blood in its passage 

 through this organ, which itself contains little or no sugar, 

 under normal conditions. With this view, we are to look 

 for sugar in the blood, in certain situations, and not in the 

 liver itself; though after death, a change of the glycogenic 

 matter in the liver into sugar takes place with great rapidity, 

 and sugar may then be found in its tissue, formally, sugar 

 disappears in the lungs, and is not found in the blood of the 

 arterial system. The presence of sugar in the urine is ab- 

 normal. 



Bernard found that if both pneumogastrics be divided in 

 the neck, and the animal be killed at a period varying from 

 a few hours to one or two days after, the liver contains no 

 sugar, under the conditions in which he generally found it ; 

 *. ., a certain time after death. From experiments of this 

 kind, he concludes that the glycogenic function is suspended 

 when the nerves are divided. 2 The experiments, however, 

 made by irritating the pneumogastrics, are more satisfactory, 

 as in these he looked for sugar in the blood and in the urine, 

 and did not confine his examinations to the substance of 

 the liver. 



After division of the pneumogastrics in the neck, if the 



1 See vol. iii., Secretion, p. 324, et seq. 



8 BERNARD, Lemons de physiologic experimentale, Paris, 1855, p. 324. 



