93 



80 grains, dissolved in 6 drachms of water, constituted the injection 

 used. In one hour's time the dog was killed. The liver was dark- 

 coloured and exceedingly congested, fluid blood oozing out of it in 

 large quantity when it was sliced. Neither hepatine nor sugar was 

 present. 



Here, then, were the experiments which taught me that, under 

 the influence of the presence of a certain quantity of carbonate of 

 soda, the whole of the hepatine in the liver might be destroyed in a 

 short space of time during life, without any appearance of the pro- 

 duction of sugar. The animals submitted to these experiments 

 were perfectly good-conditioned and healthy, and under such cir- 

 cumstances hepatine is always found to some considerable extent in 

 the liver. There could not be the slightest doubt that hepatine 

 would have been met with had not the carbonate of soda exercised a 

 special action in promoting its rapid disappearance or transformation. 

 In one of the experiments, it will be observed that this had been 

 entirely effected in an hour. 



From many subsequent experiments I learnt that, to obtain the 

 result I have mentioned, certain circumstances require to be attended 

 to in making the injection. In some experiments I did not meet with 

 a similar total disappearance of hepatine, although even a larger quan- 

 tity of carbonate of soda had been employed. I subsequently found 

 that this depended on the circumstance that, when the injection is 

 made slowly, and the blood is flowing freely through the system, the 

 carbonate of soda passes in great part through the liver without 

 effecting a total disappearance of its hepatine or materially altering 

 its natural aspect ; whereas, when the carbonated alkali is rapidly 

 thrown in, it seems to cause an obstruction to the flow of blood 

 through the organ, and to exude into, and thus be detained in its 

 tissue. This may be seen on watching the liver whilst the injection 

 is being effected ; a number of small light-coloured spots, constituting 

 the lobules influenced by the injection, first make their appearance, 

 and the liver rapidly becomes dark-coloured, swollen, and turgid with 

 blood. It may still, however, allow the blood to move through it ; 

 but in some cases, in which I have used a large quantity of the car- 

 bonate in a concentrated state, 200 grains for instance in an ounce of 

 water, the circulation through the liver has evidently become stopped, 

 for the chylo-poietic viscera have presented exactly the appearance 



