MINERAL BODIES OF THE LIVER. 367 



but was especially studied by KRUGER and MEYER. In oxen and cows - 

 they found 0.246-0.276 p. m. iron (calculated on the dry substance), 

 and in the cow-foetus about ten times as much. The liver-cells of a calf 

 a week old contain about seven times as much iron as the adult animal; 

 the quantity decreases in the first four weeks of life, when it reaches 

 about the same amount as in the adult. LAPICQUE l also found that in 

 rabbits the quantity of iron in the liver steadily diminishes from the 

 eighth day to three months after birth, namely, from 10 to 0.4 p. m., 

 calculated on the dry substance. " The fcetal liver-cells bring an abun- 

 dance of iron in the world to be used up, within a certain time, for a pur- 

 pose not well known." A part of the iron exists as phosphate, but the 

 greater part is in combination in the ferruginous protein bodies (ST. 

 ZALESKI) . 



The quantity of calcium oxide in the fresh, moist liver of the horse, 

 ox, and pig, according to TOYONAGA, amounts to 0.148-0.193 p. m., or 

 about the same as in the human liver. The amount of magnesium 

 oxide was remarkably high, namely, 0.168, 0.198, and 0.158 p. m., in 

 the livers of the horse, ox, and pig respectively. KRUGER 2 found the 

 quantity of calcium in the livers of adult cattle and of calves to be 

 respectively 0.71 p. m. and 1.23 p. m. of the dried substance. In the 

 foetus of the cow it is lower than in calves. During pregnancy the iron 

 and calcium in the foetus are antagonistic; that is, an increase in the 

 quantity of calcium in the liver causes a diminution in the iron, and an 

 increase in the iron causes a decrease in the calcium. Capper seems to- 

 be a physiological constituent, and occurs to a considerable extent in 

 cephalopods (HENZE 3 ). Foreign metals, such as lead, zinc, arsenic, 

 and others (also iron), are easily taken up and combined by the liver 

 (SLOWTZOFF, v. ZE YNEK, and others 4 ) . 



v. BIBRA 5 found in the liver of a young man who had suddenly died 

 762 p. m. water and 238 p. m. solids, consisting of 25 p. m. fat, 152 p. m. 

 protein, gelatin-forming and insoluble substances, and 61 p. m. extract- 

 ive substances. 



PROFITLICH 6 found 68.2-75.17 per cent water in the dog liver and 70.76- 

 72.86 per cent in the ox liver. The relation N:C in the fat and glycogen-free 

 dried substance was 1:3.21 in dogs and 1:3.13 in oxen or about the same as- 

 in flesh (see Chapter XI). 



1 St. Zaleski, I.e.; Kruger and collaborators, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 2"; Lapicque,. 

 Maly's Jahresber., 20. 



2 Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 31; Toyonaga, Bull, of the College of Agriculture, Tokio, 6. 



3 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 33. 



4 Slowtzoff, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 1; v. Zeynek, see Centralbl. f. Physiol., 15, 



5 See v. Gorup-Besanez, Lehrbuch cl. physiol. Chem., 4. Aufl., p. 711. 

 8 Pfluger's Arch., 119. 



