ANALYSIS OF THE BLOOD OF THE VENA PORTA, ETC. 421 
fermentation method, except in a case in which I employed, 
as a check, the method of estimation by the reduction of a 
salt of copper. I shall likewise pass over certain details con- 
cerning the composition of the blood of the vena porta and 
that of the hepatic veins, which are given in the first memoir 
which I published on this subject. I shall dwell only on the 
points which may serve for elucidating the formation of sugar 
in the liver. 
1. Sugar . — The blood of the vena porta never contains the 
least traces of sugar in dogs which are fasting and in dogs fed 
with meat. The same animals fed with vegetable substances 
(cooked potatoes) evidently present sugar in the blood of the 
vena porta, but in so small a quantity that it cannot be esti- 
mated. 
In horses fed with rye bran, chopped straw and hay, the 
blood of the vena porta contains very small proportions of 
saccharine matter. I found in one case 0 055 gr. in 100 of 
the dry alcoholic residue of the blood. In another case, the 
serum of the vena porta of a horse contained 0-0052 gr. per 
cent, of sugar. 
The blood of the hepatic veins always contains a large pro- 
portion of sugar. In three dogs fed with meat, I found the 
following ciphers calculated on the dry alcoholic residue of 
the blood: 0-814 per cent., 0*799 per cent., and 0*946 per 
cent. In three other dogs, which had been kept fasting for 
two days, I found in the blood of the hepatic veins the fol- 
lowing quantities of sugar : 0*764 per cent., 0*618 per cent., 
and 0*814 per cent. In two other dogs fed with cooked 
potatoes, the blood of the hepatic veins contained 0*981 per 
cent, of sugar in one, and 0*854 in the other. 
In two horses submitted to a vegetable diet (bran, straw, 
and hay), the blood of the hepatic veins contained in one 
case, 0 635 gr. per cent, of sugar, and, in the other, 0*893 
per cent 
The results of the foregoing analyses are given in the 
Table in the following page. 
It will suffice to look at the comparative quantities of sugar 
contained in the blood of the vena porta which enters into 
the liver and that of the hepatic veins which issue from it, to 
see that the opinion as to the formation of sugar, in the liver, 
which was first enunciated by M. C. Bernard, is placed 
beyond doubt. 
2. Fibrine , albumen . — The blood of the vena porta in horses 
and dogs contains fibrine which does not differ perceptibly, 
in its character and quantity, from the fibrine of the other 
veins. Whatever may be the nature of the diet, the blood of 
xxvur. 54 
