

GLYCOGEN AND ITS FORMATION. 355 



is small, but constant. How could we account for these feat- 

 ures of the problem with ferments transmitted through the 

 digestive tract? 



Finally, sugars thus produced i.e., from amylolytic fer- 

 ments secreted by the digestive tract do not seem to be 

 dextrose, the sugar produced by the supposed hepatic ferment. 

 Thus, Professor Foster says: "In the case of the amylolytic 

 ferment of saliva, pancreatic juice, intestinal juice, and, in- 

 deed, of all other amylolytic animal fluids, the sugar into which 

 starch or glycogen is converted is maltose. Now, the sugar 

 which appears in the liver after death is dextrose, identical, 

 as far at least as can at present be made out, with ordinary 

 dextrose." It is evident that a ferment other than the amy- 

 lopsin connected with the digestive process must be the active 

 one, and that it must reach the liver by a channel other than 

 the intestinal tract, the villi, etc. Again, it must be very 

 nearly similar to the salivary and pancreatic amylolytic fer- 

 ments. The salivary glands are so remote anatomically that 

 they can hardly be considered; we are brought, therefore, to 

 the pancreas as the only organ which could act as source of a 

 ferment or diastase having for its main function to convert 

 glycogen into dextrin. 



As shown by von Mehring, Minkowski, and de Dominicis, 

 removal of the pancreas causes marked glycosuria, and this 

 persists whether the animal be given carbohydrates or not. 

 All the other symptoms of diabetes mellitus appear, namely: 

 increased flow of urine, considerable urea, acetone, etc.; great 

 thirst and hunger, emaciation, marked muscular weakness, 

 followed by death in two to four weeks. Indeed, we are vividly 

 reminded of the suprarenal glands, on ascertaining that graft- 

 ing of a piece of pancreas in the abdomen or skin will arrest 

 the glycosuria, and that, if a small portion of the organ is left, 

 the symptoms will disappear. Again, whether carbohydrates 

 are given as food or not, the glycogen disappears from the 

 liver. "We may believe, from these experiments," says Howell, 

 "that the pancreas produces a substance of some kind that is 

 given off to the blood or lymph, and is either necessary for 

 the normal consumption of sugar in the body or else, as is 

 held by some, normally restrains the output of sugar from the 



