136 PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 



There is no doubt that the chemical operations going on in this 

 organ are manifold and must be of the greatest importance for the 

 organism; but unfortunately we know very little about the kind 

 and extent of these processes. Among them are two principal 

 ones which will be fully treated in this chapter, after we have 

 first described the constituents and the chemical composition of the 

 liver. One of these processes seems to be of an assimilatory nature 

 and refers to the formation of glycogen, while the other refers to 

 the production and secretion of the bile. 



The reaction of the liver-cell is alkaline during life, but becomes 

 acid after death. This change is probably due to the formation of 

 lactic acid, causing a coagulation of the albumins of the protoplasm 

 of the cell. A positive difference between the albuminous bodies 

 of the dead and the living, non-coagulated protoplasm has not been 

 observed. 



The albuminous bodies of the liver were first carefully investi- 

 gated by PLOS'Z. He found in the watery extract of the liver an 

 albuminous substance which coagulates at -f- 45 C., also a globulin 

 which coagulates at + 75 C., a nucleo-albumin (?) which coagu- 

 lates at + 70 C., and lastly an albuminous body which is nearly 

 related to coagulated albumin and which is insoluble in dilute 

 acids at the ordinary temperature, but dissolves on the application 

 of heat, being converted into an albuminate. 1 ST. ZALESKI found 

 in the liver an albuminous body containing iron, in which the iron 

 is more or less strongly combined, but it is unknown what relation 

 this bears to the albuminous bodies isolated by PLOS'Z. 



The fat of the liver occurs partly as very small globules and 

 partly, especially in nursing children and sucking animals, as also 

 after food rich in fat, as rather large fat-drops. This infiltration 

 of fat, which may be made so abundant by proper food that it ap- 

 pears similar in the highest degree to a pathological fatty liver, 

 begins in the periphery of the acini and extends towards the cen- 

 tre. If the amount of fat in the liver is increased by an infiltra- 

 tion, the water decreases correspondingly, while the quantity of the 

 other solids remains little changed. In fatty degeneration this is 

 different. In this process the fat is formed from the protoplasm 

 of the cell, and the quantity of the other solids is therefore dimin- 

 ished while the amount of water is only slightly changed. To 



