418 Dr. F. W. Pavy. Research bearing on the [June 16, 



there are two essential processes in the coagulation of the blood, one 

 of which has been hitherto entirely wrongly appreciated or overlooked. 

 This latter process is that the " dead " plasma converts the white 

 corpuscles directly into fibrin. At the same time, however, that this 

 occurs, a substance is liberated from the cells which converts the 

 fibrinogen also into fibrin. This is the other process. The substance 

 which is liberated from the cells is fibrin ferment. 



XVII. " A New Line of Research bearing on the Physiology of 

 Sugar in the Animal System." By F. W. Pavy, M.D., 

 F.R.S. Received June 8, 1881. 



Twenty-three years ago I presented a communication to the Royal 

 Society, entitled " On the alleged Sugar-forming Function of the 

 Liver." 



Four years previously, viz., in 1854, whilst conducting experiments 

 directed towards determining the manner in which the sugar presumed, 

 under the glycogenic doctrine, to escape from the liver was destroyed 

 (as it was then believed to be) in the lungs, I discovered that what had 

 been taken as representing the natural condition of the liver, and of the 

 blood escaping from it in relation to sugar, was founded upon a falla- 

 cious inference. By those who have only been acquainted with what, 

 in recent times, has been recognised as constituting the state existing, 

 the original position in which the matter stood will hardly be fully com- 

 prehended. The strongly saccharine state in which the liver and the 

 blood of the hepatic veins are found shortly after death was looked 

 upon, without any question being raised about it, as representing the 

 state existing during life. Without the slightest prior conception that 

 such was likely to be the case, I found first that the blood between the 

 liver and the lungs was not during life in the condition that had 

 been supposed, and next that what I discovered for the blood applied 

 also to the liver. The evidence which presented itself led me, as is 

 known, to dispute the validity of the glycogenic theory, and the 

 additional information which I have since from time to time obtained 

 has materially strengthened the position I took. To my own mind, the 

 conditions that we have to deal with looked at in their entirety, are 

 totally irreconcilable with the glycogenic theory ; but I know that the 

 difficulty which has existed in accounting for the disposal of the 

 glycogenic matter of Bernard encountered in the liver has stood in 

 the way of a general adoption of my views. This subject, however, 

 I am now prepared to approach and consider. 



When the glycogenic matter was discovered, it was described as 

 undergoing transformation into sugar immediately it was brought into 



