CHAPTER VIII. 

 THE LIVER. 



THE liver, which is the largest gland of the body, stands in close 

 relation to the glands mentioned in Chapter VII. The importance 

 of this organ for the assimilation of the food-stuffs and for the phys- 

 iological composition of the blood is evident from the fact that the blood 

 coming from the digestive tract, laden with absorbed bodies, must 

 circulate through the liver before it is driven by the heart through the 

 different organs and tissues. We are not clear as to what extent an 

 assimilation of the absorbed digestion products of the proteins brought 

 to the liver by the portal blood takes place in this organ; for the car- 

 bohydrates it has been proven that glycogen is formed from the dextrose. 

 By this glycogen formation the liver becomes the real reserve-organ for 

 the carbohydrates: it is also a storage-organ for fat, and perhaps also 

 for proteins. 1 



The formation of glycogen from dextrose is a synthesis, and the 

 occurrence of other syntheses in the liver has been repeatedly shown 

 by special observations. For example, in the liver certain ammonia 

 combinations are converted into urea or uric acid (in birds) (see Chapter 

 XV), while certain products of putrefaction in the intestine, such as phenols, 

 may be converted by synthesis into ethereal sulphuric acids by the 

 liver (PFLUGER and KOCHS, EMBDEN and GLAESSNER), probably also 

 converted into conjugated glucuronic acids (EMBDEN 2 ). The liver has 

 also the property of removing and retaining heterogeneous bodies from 

 the blood, and this is true not only of metallic salts, which are often 

 removed by this organ, but also, as SCHIFF, HEGER, and others, but espe- 

 cially ROGER, have shown, the alkaloids are retained, and are probably 

 also partially decomposed in the liver. Toxines are also withheld by the 

 liver, and hence this organ has a protective action against poisons. 3 



1 See Seitz, Pfliiger's Arch., Ill, and Asher and Boehm, Zeitschr. f. Biol., 51. 



2 Pfliiger and Kochs, Pfliiger's Arch., 20 and 23; Embden and Glaessner, Hof- 

 meister's Beitrage, 1; Embden, ibid., 2. 



3 Roger, Action du foie sur les poisons (Paris, 1887), which also contains the older 

 literature; Bouchard, Legons sur les autointoxications dans les maladies (Paris, 1887); 

 and E. Kotliar in Arch, des sciences biologiques de St. Petersbourg, 2. See also de 



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