26 J. LeConte—Glycogenic Function of the Laver. 
gen and re-delivered as liver-sugar, little by little as required, 
and burned. 2. Albuminotd excess: this is split into a combus- 
tible portion (glycogen) which is delivered to the blood as liver- 
sugar and burned, and an incombustible portion which is either 
urea or rapidly sinks into urea and is eliminated by the kidneys. 
3. Waste tessue: this is also split in the liver and disposed of like 
the last. There are the same three sources of vital force and 
animal heat, viz: 1. the combustion of the whole of the amy- 
oids; 2. the combustion of the combustible portion of albumi- 
noid food excess; and 8, the combustion of the combustible 
portion of waste tissues. Therefore the function of the liver is 
to prepare all the fuel of the body, and this fuel is only liver- 
gar. 
Now it has been brought to my attention that my account of 
the disposal of waste is in conflict with the usual view of physi- 
ologists, which view is supported by many facts. Let us then 
state sharply the difference. 
According to the usual view, oxygen taken in at the lungs 
is carried by the arterial blood to the tissues, there seizes with 
dark blood, the exchange of oxygen for carbonic acid, and 
therefore the combustion, takes place principally if not entirely 
in the capillaries and therefore in contact with the tissues ; an 
2, by the additional fact, that increased activity of any organ, 
e. g., a muscle, is attended with increased heat, increased waste, 
and therefore presumably of increased combustion of waste. But, 
on the other hand, my view is sustained by the experiments of 
Schiff, already alluded to in my previous paper. These experi- 
ments prove in the most positive manner, that poisonous waste 
is carried to the liver and there decomposed and made compar- 
atively innocuous. 
Here then are two incontestible facts: 1. The combustion of 
waste takes place principally, if not wholly in the capillaries 
and therefore in contact with the tissues. 2. The waste is not 
