INTERNAL SECRETION AND DISOEDEKS OF LIVER 685 



and usually within a very few weeks dies of peculiar symptoms of intoxi- 

 cation. Administration of bile may improve the condition temporarily. 

 However, liver feeding is of peculiar benefit and may maintain the ani- 

 mals in normal condition for many months. Unpublished experiments by 

 Foster and Hooper indicate that the substance in the liver responsible for 

 this influence on the abnormal metabolism of bile fistula dogs is present in 

 either jecor in or heparphosphatid. Hooper and Whipple (&) (1917) have 

 shown that bile fistula dogs after splenectomy may also remain in normal 

 condition for months and even years. However, eventually these animals 

 show periods of spontaneous icterus, blood destruction and high bile pig- 

 ment output, which may terminate fatally with bleeding from the gums 

 and the gastro-intestinal tract. Regeneration of red cells with consequent 

 recovery from experimental anemia, induced by bleeding, is very greatly 

 prolonged and may occupy months in splenectomized animals, as com- 

 pared with weeks in simple bile fistula dogs without splenectomy. The 

 color index may remain high during the long period of blood regeneration 

 in the splenectomized dogs. The output of bile pigments may average 

 considerably above normal, which may indicate an overproduction of blood 

 and bile pigments with perhaps a deficiency of red corpuscle stroma. These 

 experimental data strongly suggest an interaction of the liver and spleen 

 in the construction, as well as the destruction of hemoglobin and red cell 

 stroma. 



That the liver may be concerned in the warehousing and metabolizing 

 of food hormones or vitamines, is suggested by certain feeding experiments. 

 Cooper (1914) studied the efficiency of various ox tissues in postponing 

 the development of polyneuritis in pigeons on a diet of polished rice. The 

 tissues arranged according to their antineuritic powers are in the follow* 

 ing descending order: liver, cardiac muscle, cerebrum, cerebellum, volun- 

 tary muscle, and (cow's) milk. Osborne and Mendel (6) (c) (1917-18) 

 demonstrated that liver not only contains a large proportion of water-solu- 

 ble vitamin, but also adequate protein and sufficient fat-soluble vitamin to 

 maintain normal growth in rats. The authors also show that pig liver oil 

 contains growth promoting properties comparable with those of butter fat 

 and cod liver oil. 



Cod Liver Oil. Aside from its very high food value and the fact that 

 it has already been desaturated by the liver of the cod and prepared for 

 the metabolic processes in which fat is concerned, cod liver oil has been 

 shown experimentally to contain substances which play a vital role in pro- 

 moting normal growth and bone formation. 



Osborne and Mendel (a) (1914) present convincing evidence that cod 

 liver oil, like butter fat and egg yolk fat, contains a large amount of fat- 

 soluble vitamin, a substance of unknown chemical nature, which is essential 

 for the normal growth and development of rats. Schabad (a) (&) (1910) 

 showed that cod liver oil, per se, increases calcium retention in rickets. He 



