84 LECTURE V. 



total extirpation of the gland are very similar, and only show gradual 

 differentiations. Also, it must not be forgotten that the pancreatic 

 gland, like other organs, is in its entire function without question 

 dependent upon nervous influences, and that under certain conditions 

 disturbances and injuries in the region of the nerves which are connected 

 with the pancreas may produce glucosuria. The fact that the operation 

 of itself does not cause elimination of sugar, has often been shown, neither 

 does the extirpation of the solar plexus, or at least not permanently. 

 Before we take up the explanation of this disturbance in the metabolism 

 of carbohydrates produced by extirpation of the pancreas, it may be well 

 to describe briefly the phenomena exhibited by the organism after it has 

 been deprived of the gland. In general, dogs do not survive the operation 

 very long; at best they can be kept alive only two or three weeks. Pfliiger 

 found the cause of death to be extensive suppuration. According to 

 him, it was not the lack of the gland, nor the glucosuria produced, which 

 caused the death, but rather that the wound did not heal on account of 

 the sugar in the tissues. That this view is correct is shown by the fact 

 that if a piece of the pancreatic gland is left in the abdominal cavity, gluco- 

 suria ensues only after this piece is dead, and such dogs live much longer. 

 By dissection of such a dog, Pfliiger 1 found an extensive atrophy. The 

 individual organs did not show much signs of disease. The fatty tissue 

 had disappeared. The liver showed a remarkable condition. All the other 

 organs, except the brain, heart, and kidneys, which retain their weight 

 even during inanition, had lost considerably in weight; the liver, on the 

 contrary, had increased. Its weight represented 4.77 per cent of the body 

 weight. Normally, the liver, according to Pavy, 2 amounts to from 3 to 

 4.7 per cent of the body weight, and after 28 days of starvation the 

 value falls to 1.5 per cent. The composition of the liver was found to be 

 as follows: 



Per cent. 



Dry substance in the fresh liver 24 . 2 



Fat in the fresh liver 2.7 



Fat in the dry substance 11.2 



Water in the fresh liver after extraction of the fat ... 78 . 3 



Dry substance in the fresh liver after extraction of the fat . 21.7 



Nitrogen in the fresh liver 3.2 



Nitrogen in the dry liver 13.2 



Nitrogen in the dry liver after extraction of the fat . . . 14.9 



1 Pfliiger's Archiv. 108, 115 (1905). 



5 Phil. Trans, for 1860, p. 579. Researches on the Nature and Treatment of Diabetes, 

 London, 1862. 



