386 THE LIVER. 



feet purification. His investigations do not give any explanation for the quantity 

 of sulphur and it is very probable that jecorin is only a mixture of several bodies 

 among which a sulphurized and a phosphorized substance occurs. According 

 to BASKOFF it is very probable that the jecorin is a decomposition product of lecithin 

 (or other phosphatides) . 



Another phosphatide, which does not reduce directly or after boiling with acid, 

 has been called heparphosphatide by BASKOFF. In certain respects this body is 

 similar to cuorin, and the relation P:N= 1.45:1, although it was not pure. 



Among the extractive substances besides glycogen, which will be treated 

 later, rather large quantities of the purine bases occur. KOSSEL 1 found 

 in 1000 parts of the dried substance 1.97 p. m. guanine, 1.34 p. m. hypo- 

 xanthine, and 1.21 p. m. xanthine. Adenine is also contained in the 

 liver. In addition there are found urea and uric acid (especially in 

 birds), and indeed in larger quantities than in the blood, paralactic acid, 

 choline, leucine, taurine, and cystine. In pathological cases inosite and 

 amino-acids have been detected. The occurrence of bile-coloring matters 

 in the liver-cell under normal conditions is doubtful; but in retention of 

 the bile the cells may absorb the coloring-matter and become colored 

 thereby. 



A large number of enzymes are found in the liver, such as catalases, 

 oxidases, aldehydases and hydrolytic enzymes of various kinds; the dias- 

 tase acting upon glycogen, the Upases and the different proteolytic enzymes. 

 Nucleases and the nucleic acid splitting enzymes of different kinds men- 

 tioned in Chapter II have been formed in the liver and deamidases for 

 amino-acids as well as purine bodies also occur in the liver. The last 

 group of deamidases show a different behavior in regard to their occurrence 

 in different animals and the same is true for the uric acid forming and 

 uric acid destroying enzymes (Chapter XIV). We must also mention the 

 arginase which splits off urea from arginine. 



The proteolytic enzymes of the liver are of special interest, especially 

 in regard to the study of the autolysis of this organ. The processes 

 in the liver in phosphorus poisoning and in acute yellow atrophy of the 

 liver are considered as an intravitally increased autolysis. In these 

 cases a softening of the organ takes place, and proteoses, mono- and 

 diamino-acids, and other bodies are produced, which may also be found 

 in the urine, and although they may not all be derived from the liver 

 (NEUBERG and RICHTER), they are at least in part derived from this organ. 

 WAKEMAN has found in phosphorus poisoning that not only is the quan- 

 tity of nitrogen markedly diminished in the liver (of dogs), but also 

 that the quantity of nitrogen of the hexone bases is diminished, and 



Meinertz, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 46; Siegfried and Mark, ibid.-, Paul Mayer, 

 Bioch. Zeitschr., 1, and Baskoff, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 57, 61, 62. 

 1 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 8. 



