PREFACE. 3 



able, not to the lungs, but to the general system, and is due 

 to want of oxygen and not to the stimulation of carbonic 

 acid. This view, originally published in 1861, 1 has been con- 

 firmed by farther study and observation. 



In 1862, the author published an account of a new ex- 

 cretory function of the liver, consisting in the separation of 

 cholesterine from the blood, and its discharge in the faeces, 

 in the form of stercorine. 2 This discovery the author re- 

 garded as of great importance, pathologically as well as 

 physiologically, as it gave an idea of the pathology of cer- 

 tain diseases of the liver in which cholesterine is retained in 

 the blood, constituting the condition described by the author 

 under the name of cholestersemia. The fact of such a re- 

 tention of cholesterine was demonstrated in many cases in 

 the human subject ; but the views of the author have lately 

 received complete confirmation by the experiments of Dr. 

 Koloman Miiller, who produced cholestersemia, with all the 

 symptoms of " grave icterus," by injecting cholesterine into 

 the veins of dogs. 3 It seems to the author that his views 

 upon this point must now take a permanent place in science. 



In the third volume, the author adheres to the view that 

 sugar is produced by the liver during life, and reconciles the 

 discordant observations upon this point, by demonstrating 

 that the sugar thus produced is washed out by the blood as 

 fast as it is formed, and may not be found in the liver itself, 

 if this organ be examined a few seconds after death. 4 This 

 view has been adopted by many writers, as settling the con- 

 troversy with regard to the function of glycogenesis. 



1 American Journal of the Medical Sciences, Philadelphia, October, 1861. 



2 Ibid., October, 1862. 



3 Archiv fur experimentelle Paihologie und PharmaTcologie, Leipzig, 1873, Bd. 



4 New York Medical Journal, January, 1869. 



