96 FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER. — DIGESTION OF STARCH. 



SUG&ZI ijv the Liver. 



Besides the secretion of bile, the liver performs another important func- 

 tion, viz., the production of sugar. While a consideration of this subject 

 is not essential to the doctrine of diseases, certain facts pertaining to it 

 as discovered by M. Claude Bernard, may be of interest. 



So far as is known the presence of sugar in the liver is common to all 

 species of animals. The average percentage in the healthy liver of man 

 and the dog is about the same. 



The system does not depend for its supply of sugar entirely upon exter- 

 nal sources; saccharine matter is produced independently in the tissues 

 of the liver, whatever may be the nature of the food subsisted upon. 

 Bernard kept two dogs under his own observation, one for a period of 

 three, the other of eight months, during which time they were confined 

 strictly to a diet of animal food, boiled calves' head and tripe, and then 

 killed. Upon an examination, the liver was found in each instance to con- 

 tain a proportion of sugar fully equal to that present in the organ under 

 ordinary circumstances. 



In considering this sugar producing function, an important question 

 naturally arises, bearing upon the proper feeding of dogs. It has been 

 maintained by some that starchy and saccharine matters are utterly de- 

 testable to the canine race. A consideration of a few facts will render 

 apparent that this extreme doctrine is untenable. 



While it is certain starchy matters are not digested in the stomach, but 

 pass unchanged into the small intestine, experiments have proved beyond 

 all doubts that the intestinal fluids of a dog transform starch into sugar 

 with the greatest promptitude, and it is then as rapidly absorbed. If a dog 

 is fed on boiled starch and meat, while some of the latter remains in his 

 stomach for eight, nine, or ten hours, the starch begins immediately to 

 pass into the intestine, where it is at once converted into sugar and ab- 

 sorbed. The whole of the starch even may have completely disappeared 

 in an hour's time. It is evident therefore that nature has made ample pro- 

 vision for the digestion of starchy food. 



The writer maintains that while meat is the proper food for a dog, he as 

 strongly insists that starchy matters in small quantities, far from being 

 injurious, are really conducive to the health of the animal. Although the 

 saccharine matter becomes changed after absorption, these same chemical 

 changes themselves serve to maintain the integrity of the blood, and the 

 healthy nutrition of the body. 



