96 



boiled with a little sulphuHc acid, or treated when in a neutral state 

 with saliva, at a moderately elevated temperature, it undergoes trans- 

 formation into sugar. Now it is not upon the evidence of one, but of 

 all these tests, that I have relied. 



Does the hepatine disappear by being metamorphosed into sugar ? 

 If so, taking an ordinary sized liver, say 7| ounces in weight, con- 

 taining an average amount of hepatine for an animal diet, say seven 

 per cent. ; and reckoning (in accordance with my analyses showing 

 the relation of loss of hepatine to gain of sugar in the liver after 

 death) that the loss of one and a half part of the former is accom- 

 panied with the production of one part of the latter, then upwards 

 of 150 grains of sugar have to be accounted for. Under such cir- 

 cumstances sugar ought to be easily detected in quantity in the liver 

 and blood ; or else it must be assumed to be decomposed as fast as 

 it is formed. But, as I have mentioned, the liver in my experiments 

 has been found free from sugar as well as hepatine, and the blood 

 has exhibited a similar state, or has only been charged to a slight 

 extent a condition that has probably existed previous to the injec- 

 tion, and been produced by the preliminary part of the experiment, 

 chloroform having been always used to occasion anaesthesia. The 

 sugar, then, is not to be discovered, and we shall find the other 

 hypothesis to be equally untenable. 



"When sugar is present either in the liver or blood, I have failed to 

 discover that the introduction of a carbonated alkali exercises any 

 perceptible influence over it. It is true that, in order to avoid error, 

 certain precautions are necessary in preparing a liquid from an alka- 

 line specimen for the application of the copper test. If the decoction 

 of the liver is allowed to remain only in a slight degree alkaline, a 

 certain amount of albuminous matter is retained in solution, which 

 interferes materially with the action of the test. If acetic acid be 

 used to neutralize, a small excess of this will produce the condition 

 that it was intended to avoid. I find, however, that citric acid is not 

 liable to this objection ; and, accordingly, if it be added in slight 

 excess to a specimen of alkaline liver, a decoction can be prepared 

 in which the slightest amount of sugar or of hepatine may be easily 

 and certainly recognized. 



To show that when sugar is formed the carbonate of soda has no 

 power of destroying it, I may refer to the following experiment, which 



