388 THE LIVER. 



of dissolved haemoglobin, in which process the iron combinations derived 

 from the blood-pigments in other organs, such as the spleen and marrow, 

 also seem to take part. 1 A destruction of blood-pigments, with a splitting 

 off of compounds rich in iron, seems to take place in the liver in the for- 

 mation of the bile-pigments. Even in invertebrates, which have no 

 haemoglobin, the so-called liver is rich in iron, from which DASTRE and 

 FLORESCO 2 conclude that the quantity of iron in the liver of inverte- 

 brates is entirely independent of the decomposition of the blood-pigment, 

 and in vertebrates it is in part so. According to these authors the liver 

 has, on account of the quantity of iron, a specially important oxidizing 

 function, which they call the " fonction martiale " of the liver. 



The richness in iron of the liver of new-born animals is of special 

 interest a condition which was shown by the analyses of ST. ZALESKI, 

 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 3 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 foetal 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 

 more than the human liver (0.101 p. m. according to MAGNUS-LEVY). 

 The amount of magnesium oxide was remarkably high, namely, 0.168, 

 O.lSSand 0.158 p. m., in the livers of the horse, ox, and pig, respectively, 

 but considerably less than the human liver in which MAGNUS-LEVY found 

 0.292 p. m. KRUGER 4 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 fcetus are antagonistic; 



1 See Lapicque, Compt. Rend., 124, and Schurig, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 41. 



2 Arch. dePhysiol. (5), 10. 



3 St. Zaleski, 1. c.; Kriiger and collaborators, Zeitschr. f. Biologic, 27; Lapicque, 

 Maly's Jahresber., 20. 



4 Kriiger, Zeitschr. f. Biologic, 31; Toyonaga, Bull, of the College of Agriculture ; 

 Tokio, 6; A. Magnus-Levy, Bioch. Zeitschr., 24. 



