530 



After division of the spinal cord just below the phrenics, the tem- 

 perature falls, and the transformation of hepatine into sugar after death 

 is so slow, that the process is easily recognized under its true light. 



In the livers of animals naturally of low temperature, such as the 

 frog, the oyster, and the mussel, it is a matter of the greatest facility 

 to show that the organ is free from sugar during life, or at the period 

 of death. 



The ingestion of starchy and saccharine substances leads to a great 

 accumulation of hepatine in the liver. The liver itself becomes also 

 greatly increased in size. 



The average weight of the liver in eleven dogs fed upon an animal 

 diet was ^th that of the animal. An analysis of seven of the livers 

 gave an average per-centage of hepatine amounting to 7*19. 



Five dogs upon a vegetable diet gave an average weight of liver 

 equal to ^th that of the animal. An analysis of three of the livers 

 gave an average per-centage of hepatine amounting to 17*23. 



Four dogs upon a diet of animal food with a large admixture of 

 sugar, gave an average weight of liver equal to j^th of that of the 

 animal. An analysis of the four livers gave a per-centage of hepa- 

 tine precipitate amounting to 14*5. 



Experiments made upon the rabbit confirm these results obtained 

 upon the dog, showing that saccharine and amylaceous materials re- 

 ceived as food are converted by the liver into hepatine. The author 

 looks upon this as a strong fact in opposition to the glucogenic 

 theory. He conceives it to be in the highest degree improbable that 

 sugar should be transformed into hepatine by the liver for the pur- 

 pose of coming back again into sugar in the same organ. 



In the transformation of hepatine into sugar in the liver after 

 death, the average of four analyses gives a loss of one part and a half 

 of hepatine for the production of one part of sugar. 



Hepatine stands in direct opposition to sugar in regard to its pro- 

 perty of diffusibility. Its power of diffusion the author has found 

 to be so low, that it does not pass at an ordinary pressure through 

 animal membranes. Sugar and hepatine being mixed together and 

 placed on one side of a piece of bladder in an endosmotic apparatus, 

 the sugar diffuses itself and leaves the hepatine behind. This phy- 

 sical property of hepatine harmonizes with its retention in the hepatic 

 cells under a natural state of the circulation. 



