58 (228) Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. 



The possibility, further, suggests itself that the d agglutinin and 

 the precipitin in a typhoid serum are identical. 



33 (125). "The effect of alcohol on hepatic glycogenosis": 

 WILLIAM SAL ANT. 



In view of the current tendency to regard alcohol as a food it 

 seemed desirable to make a study of its effect on hepatic glyco- 

 genesis, for if alcohol can replace the carbohydrates in food it 

 might spare the carbohydrate radicals of the tissue proteins. An 

 accumulation of glycogen in the liver after exclusive feeding with 

 alcohol might therefore be expected. Indeed the work of Nebel- 

 thau, 1 who found 1.34 to 3.51 per cent, of glycogen in the liver 

 of the hen after the administration of 10 c.c. per kilo of 96 per 

 cent, alcohol on the seventh day of fasting, lends support to this 

 view. 



This suggestion was put to an experimental test. The investi- 

 gation was carried out on rabbits which were fed exclusively on 

 alcohol for periods of 4 to 6 days. Alcohol (30 or 60 per cent.) 

 was given per os by means of a stomach tube in amounts varying 

 between 3 to 9 c.c. per kilo daily. Control rabbits were subjected 

 to the same preliminary treatment, but were given water instead of 

 alcohol by stomach tube. At the expiration of 4 to 6 days the rab- 

 bits were killed under ether anesthesia and the livers examined for 

 glycogen according to Pfliiger's 2 shorter method. The amount of 

 dextrose obtained by hydrolysis of the glycogen was determined 

 by Allihn's method. Later in the course of the investigation, for 

 reasons of economy of time, the amounts of copper were determined 

 volumetrically by the iodin method instead of gravimetrically as 

 originally recommended by Allihn. 



The results at this stage of the investigation show that in 

 rabbits fed exclusively on alcohol (10 c.c. of 30 per cent, alcohol 

 per kilo or 1 2 c.c. of 60 per cent, alcohol per kilo daily for four or 

 five days) there is no accumulation of glycogen in the liver, which 

 shows that glycogen is not formed in the livers of rabbits when they 

 are fed on alcohol alone. Previous to fasting or alcohol administra- 

 tion, these rabbits were fed on oats, hay and cabbage. As the for- 



1 Nebelthau : Zeitschrift fiir Biologie, 1892, xxviii, p. 146. 

 tpflfiger: Archiv fUr die gesammtt Physiologies 1902, xciii, p. 163. 



