226 GLYCOGEN 



There is little occasion, however, for lingering over these 

 essentially obvious features, which take up a large part of 

 the literature of the subject. Briefly stated there is scarcely 

 any form of pathological change in the body which may not, 

 at times, come to involve the reserve supplies of carbo- 

 hydrate which have been stored up when times were good ; 

 but the author confesses he cannot bring very much interest 

 to bear upon the details of these processes. 



Attention should here be called to the fact that the im- 

 portance of the liver as the place of greatest deposit of 

 glycogen has been much over-estimated in connection with 

 the normal course of carbohydrate metabolism. Dogs can 

 undoubtedly readily assimilate and consume large quantities 

 of carbohydrates, even after the liver has been excluded 

 from the portal circulation, as by the establishment of an 

 Eck's fistula or by transient compression of the portal vein 

 (by a suture carried about the vein and through the 

 abdominal wall) 14 (Cf. Vol. I of this series, p. 296, 

 Chemistry of the Tissues). 



Formation of Glycogen in the Perfused Liver. Turning 

 next to the manner in which the body builds up its glycogen it 

 may be said that conclusive information upon the formation 

 of glycogen was reasonably to be expected from perfusion 

 experiments, in which substances believed capable of con- 

 tributing the material for its construction are introduced 

 into the blood used in perfusing the living, excised liver. 

 While at first the procedure required the determination of 

 the glycogen in a portion of the liver before the inception 

 of the experiment and thereafter the perfusion of another 

 part of the organ, Grube 15 has devised a method (based on 



14 F. de Filippi (Rome), Zeitschr. f. Biol., 50, 38, 1908; F. Verzar (TangPs 

 Lab.), Biochem. Zeitschr., 3J h 52, 63, 1911; E. Wehrle (Basel), ibid., 34, 233, 

 1911; N. Burdenko (Borpaith), Internat. Beitr. z. Pathol. u. Ther. d. 

 Ernahrungsstorungen, 4, 93, 1912. 



15 K. Grube (Pfliiger's Lab.), Pfliiger's Arch., 107, 483, 1905; cf. opp. 

 H. S6rege (Bordeaux) , C. K. S'oc. de Biol., 57, 600, 1904. 



18 K. Grube (Haliburton's Lab., London), Pfliiger's Arch., 107, 590, 1905. 



