292 
ORIGIN OF SUGAR IN THE LIVER. 
author calls u the functional oscillations of the secretion of the 
liver” As a consequence of the foregoing, I have proved 
that the same secretion diminishes with abstinence or fasting 
and finally disappears entirely by inanition. 
The experiments of which 1 give a summary in this note, 
have not confirmed this physiological theory. 
I commenced by submitting to chemical examination the 
soluble matters contained in the liver. 
The soluble products contained in the liver of the ox, which 
formed the special subject of my researches, are, indepen- 
dently of the blood — 
1. An albuminoid matter which greatly resembles the 
compound studied and described by M. Mialhe, under the 
name of Alhuminose . 
2. Glucose. 
3. A small number of mineral salts, among which chloride 
of sodium predominates. 
Our author then proceeds to give a description of the 
manner in which those principles were demonstrated by him 
to exist ; after which he says — 
Having satisfied ourselves, in this manner, of the positive 
presence of glucose in the tissue of the liver, but persisting 
always in the idea that the sugar could not arise from a 
secretion proper to that organ, but that it had its sole source 
in the alimentation, it remained for us to investigate whether 
the sugar which is found mixed with the blood in the liver 
would not also be met with in the blood taken from other 
parts of the body, and, in this case, to compare the quantities 
found in the general mass of the blood with that which the 
hepatic tissue contains. 
Although almost all authors, and almost all chemical and 
physiological authorities, were opposed to the idea of the 
presence of glucose in normal blood, we thought that we 
might succeed better in this research if we observed the two 
following precautions: 1. Not to wait for the spontaneous 
coagulation of the blood, as had previously been done, think- 
ing to simplify the operations of chemical analysis. 2. To 
operate on liquors rendered slightly acid, in order to be 
secure from the action which might be exerted by the carbo- 
nate of soda, existing in the serum of the blood, on the small 
quantity of serum which it may contain. 
It is, doubtless, owing to the observance of these two 
precautions that we succeeded in rendering evident the ex- 
istence of a certain quantity of glucose in normal blood, not 
simply as several physiologists had done, in consequence of 
the administration of feculents and during the digestive 
