FORMATION OF SUGAR. 377 



directly into the vena cava without passing through the liver. In 

 well-nourished animals operated upon in this manner the livers had the 

 same properties as those from starving animals, while on the contrary 

 the muscles contained quantities of glycogen which corresponded to 

 those found in a normal over-fed dog. 



If it be true that the blood and lymph contain a diastatic enzyme 

 which transforms glycogen into sugar, and also that the glycogen regularly 

 occurs in the form-elements and is not dissolved in the fluids, it seems 

 probable that the glycogen in solution is not transmitted by the blood to 

 the organs, but perhaps more likely, if the leucocytes do not act as car- 

 riers, it is formed on the spot from the sugar. 1 The glycogen formation 

 seems to be a general function of the cells. In adults, the liver, which 

 is very rich in cells, has the property, on account of its anatomical posi- 

 tion, of transforming large quantities of sugar into glycogen. 



This glycogen, which is deposited in the liver as reserve-food, in order 

 that it can be useful to the body, must at least in greater part be trans- 

 formed into sugar and supplied to the various organs by the blood. The 

 question now arises whether there is any foundation "for the statement 

 that the liver-glycogen is transformed into sugar. 



As first shown by BERNARD and redemonstrated by many inves- 

 tigators, the glycogen in a dead liver is gradually changed into sugar, and 

 this sugar formation is caused, as BERNARD supposed and ARTHUS and 

 HUBER, PAVY, PICK and BiAL 2 proved, by a diastatic enzyme which, 

 according to ROHMANN and BORCHARDT, S is identical with a diastatic 

 enzyme of the blood. 



This post-mortem sugar formation led BERNARD to the assump- 

 tion of the formation of sugar from glycogen in the liver during life. 

 BERNARD suggested the following arguments for this theory: The liver 

 always contains some sugar under physiological conditions, and the 

 blood from the hepatic vein is always somewhat richer in sugar than the 

 blood from the portal vein. BERNARD'S views found in SEEGEN an active 

 supporter, as he tried to show by numerous experiments the physio- 

 logical sugar content of the liver as well as the high sugar content of the 

 blood of the liver veins. On the other hand the correctness of the 

 observations of BERNARD and SEEGEN is disputed by many investigators- 

 such as PAVY, HITTER, SCHIFF, EULENBERG, LUSSANA, MOSSE, N. ZUNTZ 

 and others, 4 and in regard to the sugar content in the two kinds of 



1 See Dastre, Compt. rend, de soc. biol., 47, 280, and Kaufmann, ibid., 316. 



2 Arthus and Huber, Arch, de Physiol. (5), 4, 659; Pavy, Journal of Physiol., 22; 

 Pick, Hofmeister's Beitr., 3; Bial. Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1901. 



3 R6hmann, Verh. d. Ges. deutsch. Naturf. u. Aerzte, Breslau, 1903; Borchardt, 

 Pfliiger's Arch., 100. 



4 In regard to the literature on sugar formation in the liver see Bernard, Leoons sur 



