FORMATION OF SUGAR IN THE LITER. 341 



may be quoted in proof of this : Having fed a healthy dog 

 for many days exclusively on flesh, he killed it, removed 

 the liver at once, and before the contained blood could 

 have coagulated, he thoroughly washed out its tissue by 

 passing a stream of cold water through the portal vein. 

 He continued the injection until the liver was completely 

 exsanguined, until the issuing water contained not a trace 

 of sugar or albumen, and until no sugar was yielded by 

 portions of the organ cut into slices and boiled in water. 

 Having thus deprived the liver of all saccharine matter, 

 he left it for twenty-four hours, and on then examining it, 

 found in its tissue a large quantity of soluble sugar, which 

 must clearly have been formed subsequently to the organ 

 being washed, and out of some previously insoluble and 

 non-saccharine substance. This and other experiments 

 led him and others to the conclusion that the formation 

 of the amyloid substance by the liver is the result of a 

 kind of secretion or elaboration out of materials in the 

 solid tissues of the gland such secretion being probably 

 effected by the hepatic cells, in which, indeed, as already 

 observed, the substance has been detected. 



According to this view, then, the liver may be regarded 

 as an organ engaged in forming two kinds of secretion, 

 namely, bile and sugar, or rather, the glycogenic substance 

 readily convertible into sugar. The former, chiefly excre- 

 mentitious, passes along the bile- ducts into the intestines, 

 where it may subserve some purposes in relation to diges- 

 tion, and is then for the most part re-absorbed, and 

 ultimately eliminated during the processes concerned in 

 the production of animal heat. The latter, namely sugar, 

 being soluble, is, unless Pavy's view be correct, taken up 

 by the blood in the hepatic vein, conveyed through the 

 right side of the heart to the lungs, where it is probably 

 consumed in the respiratory process, and thus contributes 

 to the production of animal heat. The experiments of 

 Lehmann led him to believe that the liver sugar is con- 



