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Very slight causes are sufficient to determine the presence of a 

 considerable amount of sugar in the circulation during life. By 

 simply interfering with the breathing, a strongly diabetic state of 

 the urine may be induced in an hour. To obtain a fair specimen 

 of blood in its natural condition from the right side of the heart 

 during life, the animal must remain in a perfectly tranquil state 

 during the performance of catheterism. 



From some recent experiments, it would appear that the blood in 

 the right side of the heart is not appreciably more saccharine than 

 the blood in the portal vein. 



As in the case of the blood, the hitherto adopted mode of exami- 

 nation of the liver has, in the author's opinion, led to a fallacious 

 inference of its physiological state. It contains a material which is 

 exceedingly susceptible of undergoing transformation into sugar by a 

 process of the character of fermentation. Acids, alkalies, extreme 

 cold, and a heat sufficient to coagulate and destroy the ferment, 

 check this transformation. And by these agencies it may be shown, 

 that if the liver contain any sugar at the moment of death, it is 

 only to the extent of the merest trace. The saccharine state of the 

 liver, which has been hitherto looked upon as belonging to life, is the 

 result of a. post-mortem change which takes place with an astonishing 

 rapidity. 



The particular part played by the liver in reference to the point 

 under consideration, is to form a material which was originally called 

 the glucogenic substance. As it is not considered by the author 

 that this material is really a sugar-forming substance under physio- 

 logical conditions, he has styled it hepatine, as belonging to the liver. 

 This substance is doubtless intended for a special and important pur- 

 pose in the economy, but what this purpose precisely is, must be left 

 for the present as an open question. As one of its properties, it is 

 most susceptible of undergoing transformation into sugar. Although 

 in contact with a ferment, yet it resists, under natural circumstances 

 during life, this kind of transformation. Immediately, however, 

 that life is destroyed, the ordinary laws of chemistry come into opera- 

 tion, and a change into sugar is effected. Abnormal states of the 

 circulation, and probably of the blood, also lead to a similar produc- 

 tion. Certain altered states of the nervous system likewise occasion 

 an extensive formation of sugar in the system. 



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