339 



natural, and behaved in the ordinary manner. The blood underwent 

 its usual coagulation. 



No. 5. A medium-sized dog that had not been fed for twenty-four 

 hours : 30 drachms of phosphoric acid injected into the duodenum, 

 and two hours afterwards the life of the animal was destroyed. There 

 was no urine found in the bladder. The intestine looked black, as if 

 in a state of mortification. Some of the large venous trunks in the 

 liver were plugged up with coagulated blood. The liver, examined 

 a short time after death, gave only a moderately strong reaction of 

 sugar, and none of the presence of amyloid substance. 



It will be observed that in the first three experiments saccharine 

 urine was produced by the influence of phosphoric acid introduced 

 into the intestine. In the fourth, no sugar was found ; because, I 

 apprehend, the quantity of acid employed (4 drachms) was too small. 

 The fifth is incomplete, on account of there having been no urine to 

 test ; bat this experiment is of interest, in showing that a large 

 quantity of the acid injected into the intestinal canal may produce 

 the same kind of effect, as regards plugging up the larger veins of the 

 liver, as when introduced directly into a branch of the portal system. 



From a consideration of all that has been brought forward, it is 

 evident that the presence of an acid in sufficient amount in the system 

 so perverts the normal processes of life as to occasion a considerable 

 production of sugar, which, passing into the blood, escapes by the 

 urine. Such is the fact ; and, as I have already stated, I consider it 

 to be caused by an effect of the acid upon the liver. The chemical 

 disposition of the amyloid substance to transform into sugar is, I 

 conceive, allowed to come into play from the unnatural state of the 

 blood, and thus the result occurs. 



In former communications to the Royal Society, I have mentioned 

 that destruction of the superior cervical ganglia of the sympathetic 

 occasions a temporary diabetes, and that this diabetes is prevented by 

 the previous introduction of carbonate of soda into the circulation. 

 In accordance with what might be expected, the injection of the acid 

 and the operation on the sympathetic produce conjointly a saccharine 

 state of the urine, as either does separately. In one case where I 

 analysed the urine, I found 7' 3 grains of sugar per ounce, an hour and a 

 half after the operation on the nerveand the injection had been effected. 



I consider it a point of interest (which, however, I merely mention 



