208 INFLUENCE OF PNEUMOGASTRIC NERVE. 







Iby fermentation. FrDm this there can be no doubt that, in the changes 

 which are occurring during the passage of the blood through the liver, 

 there is a production of sugar, and this seems to be connected with a dim- 

 inution in the quantity of fat ; for if an excess of fat and a deficiency 

 of sugar enter that organ, and their quantities are inversely changed at 

 their emergence from it, it would appear that fat may be decomposed act- 

 ually, as we know is possible hypothetically, into cholic acid and sugar. 



But with respect to taurine, the adjunct of the cholic acid, since it is a 



Taurine comes m 'trogenized body, we are obliged to seek for it in some oth- 



from blood- er source, and this, it would appear from the facts set forth, 



must be the regressive metamorphosis of the blood-cells. 



Taurine has not as yet been detected in the portal blood. It can not be 



supposed that the sulphuric acid of the portal blood is used by deoxida- 



tion in the preparation of free sulphur for the taurine, since, if any thing, 



the quantity of that acid in the hepatic venous blood is increased. From 



'whatever source it may have been derived, the sulphur of taurine entered 



the liver in an unoxidized state. 



When we reflect that the bile is the product of decay, that it pre-ex- 

 ists in the blood, that on its arrival in the intestine a part of it is cast 

 out with the fa3cal matter, it seems very unlikely that an immense cell 

 apparatus, constituting the largest gland in the whole system, should be 

 Analogies in necessary for its removal. But when we moreover reflect 

 dlTdnglugar " that in tte mechanism of plants, from gum, or rather from 

 and fat. carbonic acid and water, under the agency of cells in the 



leaves or other structures, both sugar and oils are formed, we recognize 

 that there is a connection between those organisms and these products. 



M. Bernard's experiments seem to show that the sugar-forming func- 

 Influence of tion of the liver may be morbidly increased by wounding the 

 the pneumo- medulla oblongata near the origin of the pneumogastric nerve, 



gastric nerve . _ r 



on the quanti- or by the application of galvanism to the same part, an arti- 

 ty of sugar. c i a l diabetes ensuing, and this within a few minutes after 

 the operation, but it usually ceases after two or three days. It is accom- 

 panied by a great derangement of respiration, a lowering of the tempera- 

 ture, and a venous condition of the arterial blood. It by no means fol- 

 lows, however, that the excess of sugar observed in Bernard's experi- 

 ments arises from an increased action of the liver, or an increased energy 

 of the sympathetic nerve : it may be, as Reynoso asserts, attributable to 

 the injury inflicted on the pneumogastric, and diminished respiration. 

 The administration of ether and chloroform, the conditions of old age and 

 foetal life, the influence of many diseases, as chronic bronchitis, asthma, 

 pleurisy, all present a tendency to the accumulation of sugar in the urine, 

 the sources in each of these cases being attributable to respiratory dis- 

 turbance ; for if any thing occurs to retard or delay the destruction by 



