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from the influence of catalytic action in some such manner as in my 

 experiment with the injection of carbonate of soda into the liver 

 instantly after death, or the absence of change depended upon a 

 want of the requisite catalytic agent. 



I cannot help regarding it as a most significant fact, which, how- 

 ever, I merely mention here, without at present commenting upon 

 it, that after the introduction of carbonate of soda into the system, 

 the liver gives upon analysis so high a per-centage of fat. The usual 

 quantity of fat in the liver of the healthy dog kept upon an animal 

 diet, I have found to be about six per cent. It is seldom much more, 

 and often only three or four per cent. After the introduction of 

 carbonate of soda into the system, my analyses have given me from 

 ten to twelve and thirteen, and even more than this per cent. The 

 employment of large quantities of the carbonate does not seem to 

 have the effect I have just mentioned. It is only where the liver is 

 injected with a moderate amount that the high per-centage of fat is 

 noticeable : I do not think that the hepatine is directly transformed into 

 fat, but there is, I have strong reason to believe, a close connexion 

 between the two ; at all events, it is a point that I have grounds for 

 endeavouring to work out. The formation of the bile also, from what 

 I have observed, appears to be involved in this question, and forms 

 a subject of consideration in the investigation I am conducting. 



The conclusions advanced in this communication are : 



" That the introduction of carbonate of soda into the circulation 

 prevents the production of saccharine urine after lesions of the sym- 

 pathetic nerve otherwise occasioning it. 



" That carbonate of soda injected into the general venous system 

 does not prevent the urine from becoming saccharine after the de- 

 struction of life when the circulation is kept up artificially ; but in- 

 jected into the portal system, so that all may pass into the liver, it 

 has the effect of keeping the urine entirely free from sugar. 



" That carbonate of soda injected into the portal system during 

 life, causes a rapid disappearance of hepatine from the liver without 

 any sign of the production of sugar. 



" That in the disappearance of hepatine under the influence of the 

 carbonate of soda, the hepatine is not concealed, nor transformed 

 into sugar, nor destroyed by any direct chemical power possessed by 

 the carbonated alkali. The facts before me would suggest that it is 



