366 THE LIVER. 



The mineral bodies of the liver consist of phosphoric acid, potassium, 

 sodium, alkaline earths, and chlorine. The potassium is in excess of 

 the sodium. Iron is a regular constituent of the liver, but it occurs 

 in very variable amounts. BUNGE found 0.01-0.355 p. m. iron in 

 the blood-free liver of young cats and dogs. This was calculated on the 

 liver substance freshly washed with a 1 per cent NaCl solution. Calculated 

 on 10 kilos bodily weight, the iron in the liver amounted to 3.4-80.1 mg. 

 Recent determinations of the quantity of iron in the liver of the rabbit, 

 dog, hedge-hog, pig, and man have been made by GUILLEMONAT and 

 LAPICQUE, and in rabbits by SCAFFIDI. The variation was great in human 

 beings. In men the quantity of iron in the blood-free liver (blood- 

 pigment subtracted in the calculation) was regularly more, and in 

 women less, than 0.20 p. m. (calculated on the fresh moist organ). Above 

 0.5 p. m. is considered as pathological. According to BIELFELD,! who 

 also finds a greater iron content in men, this difference appears only after 

 the first 20-25 years. At this age (20-25 years) the iron content is 

 smallest. 



The quantity of iron in the liver can be increased by drugs containing 

 iron, as also by inorganic iron salts, and the largest deposition of iron 

 was observed by Novi 2 after the hypodermic injection of iron. The 

 quantity of iron may also be increased by an abundant destruction of 

 red blood-corpuscles, which will result from the injection 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. s A destruction of blood-pigments, with a splitting 

 oft 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 4 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, 



12 and 13, with Neimann, Wiener Sitzungsber. Math. Klasse, 112; Turkel, Hofmeister's 

 Beitrage, 9. 



1 Bunge, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 17, 78; Guillemonat and Lapicque, Compt. 

 rend, de soc, biol., 48, and Arch, de Physiol. (5), 8; Bielfeld, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 

 2; see also Schmey, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 39; Scaffidi, ibid., 54. 



2 Se Centralbl. d. Physiol., 16, 393. 



3 See Lapicque, Compt. rend., 124, and Schurig, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 41. 



4 Arch, de Physiol. (5), 10. 



