FAT AND PHOSPHATIDES. 363 



ferruginous pigment soluble in water, ferrine, and a pigment soluble in chloro- 

 form and insoluble in water, chlorochrome. They have not isolated these pigments 

 in a pure condition. In certain invertebrates chlorophyll originating from the 

 food also occurs in the liver. 



The fat of the liver occurs partly as very small globules and partly 

 (especially in nursing children and suckling animals, as also after food 

 rich in fat) as rather large fat -drops. The occurrence of a fatty infiltra- 

 tion, i.e., a transportation of fat to the liver, may not only be produced 

 by an excess of fat in the food (NOEL-PATON), but also by a migration 

 from other parts of the body under abnormal conditions, such as poison- 

 ing with phosphorus, phlorhizin, and certain other bodies (LEO, LEBEDEFF, 

 ROSENFELD, and others l ). The fatty infiltration occurring in poisoning ^ 

 and which is accompanied with degenerative changes in the cells, may cause 

 a diminution in the amount of protein and a rise in the water content. 

 If the amount of fat in the liver is increased by an infiltration, the water 

 decreases correspondingly, while the quantity of the other solids remains 

 little changed. Changes of a kind may occur, so that, because of 

 the antipathy (ROSENFELD, BoTTAZZi) 2 existing between glycogen and 

 fat, a liver rich in fat is habitually poor in glycogen. The reverse occurs 

 after feeding with carbohydrate-rich food, namely, the liver is rich in 

 glycogen and poor in fat. 



The composition of the liver-fat seems to vary not only in different 

 animals, but is variable with differing conditions. Thus NOEL-PATON 

 found that the liver-fat in man and several animals was poorer in oleic 

 acid and had a correspondingly higher melting-point than the fat from 

 the subcutaneous connective tissue, while ROSENFELD 3 observed the 

 opposite condition on feeding dogs with mutton-fat. 



The deductions as to the quantity of glycerides with stronger unsaturated 

 acids than oleic acid in liver fat are to be accepted with caution, as these acids 

 originate from contaminated phosphatides. 



Phosphatides, which were formerly designated lecithin, and whose 

 quantity is generally calculated as such, also belong to the normal constit- 

 uents of the liver. The quantity (as lecithin) amounts to over 23.5 p. m. 

 according to NoEL-PATON. 4 In starvation the lecithin, according to NOEL- 



1 Xoel-Paton, Journ. of Physiol., 19; Leo, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 9; Lebedeff 

 Pfliiger's Arch., 31; Athanasiu, Pfliigers Arch., 74; Taylor, Journ. of Exp. Med., 4; 

 Kraus u. Sommer, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 2; Rosenfeld, Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 36. 

 See also Rosenfeld, Ergebnisse der Physiologic, 1, Abt. 1, and Berl. klin. Wochens^hr., 

 1904; Schwalbe, Centralbl. f. Physiol.', 18, p. 319. 



2 Arch. Ital. d. Biol., 48 (1908), cited in Bioch. Centralbl., 7, p. 833. 



3 Cited by Lummert, Pfliiger's Arch., 71. In regard to the liver-fat of children, see 

 Thiemich, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 26. 



4 1. c. See also Heffter, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 28. 



