540 
FORMATION OF SUGAR BY THE LIVER. 
suffered, got his finger inoculated with the matter ; and 
among the symptoms which followed, was a large crop of 
ecthymatous pustules in the extremities. Excepting that the 
one is acute, and almost always fatal, the other slow in its 
stages, and spontaneously curable, syphilis and glanders pre- 
sent features of marked similarity. In both, the inoculation of 
pus is required, in both the resulting disease is greatly modi- 
fied by constitutional peculiarity, not only in severity, but 
in length of duration. Respecting the inferences to be 
made from this similarity in pathological character, as to the 
treatment most likely to be beneficial, we shall have to 
remark shortly.— Medical Times and Gazette . 
ON THE FORMATION OF SUGAR BY THE LIVER. 
Bernard’s theories on the sugar-forming power of 
the liver have been recently repeated to a very great extent, 
and in every possible form of experiment, in Paris, by a 
Commission appointed by the Academy, who have concluded 
their labours, and have furnished a most gratifying report, 
fully corroborating all Bernard’s original statements. The 
only subject of doubt or controversy seems to be — whether 
the liver forms sugar or merely separates it when already 
formed, as the kidney separates urea; the latter, as is 
generally known, being formed not in the kidney, but in the 
capillaries, from the waste of the tissues. Section of the pneu- 
mogastric stops the sugar-forming power of the liver, while 
puncture of the medulla oblongata, between the origin of 
this nerve and the acoustic, by causing irritation of the pneu- 
mogastric, on the other hand, increases the amount of sugar, 
and produces artificial diabetes. The only outlet by which 
sugar escapes in the natural state from the system seems to 
be the gastric juice, as in excessive vomiting, or by the 
kidneys. Animals fed on flesh do not afford the same 
amount of sugar as those fed on starch or sugar; but the 
Commission do not think this circumstance invalidates the 
very original discovery of Bernard, no more than that in 
hysteria the kidneys form very little urea, and give off pale, 
aqueous urine. The entire report is of the most satisfactory 
and practical description, and must modify the treatment of 
diabetes and other diseases. — Lancet . 
