510 
PROFESSOR SIMONDS’S LECTURE. 
was an organ of a peculiar character, secreting a fluid necessary for 
the maintenance of animal life, and excreting materials prejudicial 
to it. As a proof that the liver was an excreting organ, the lecturer 
referred to the function of the organ during foetal life. [He then, 
at some length, and with much clearness, described the anatomy of 
the liver and the adjacent organs, for which we have not space.] 
In reference to the function of the liver, he observed that a new 
light had been thrown on this subject within the last few months, 
by experiments which were undertaken to ascertain the precise 
part which both the pancreas and the liver play in the animal eco- 
nomy ; these experiments had been carried out in this country and 
also in France. A French physiologist (M. Bernard) had ascer- 
tained that one function of the liver was to produce sugar out of 
the animal organism : this was quite a new theory. Liebig and 
others had always held that animals had not the power of gene- 
rating a single principle; but now we are told that the liver had 
the power of forming sugar. This would throw a new light on 
the disease usually called the rot in sheep. It was known that, 
at an early stage of the rot, the animal accumulated flesh somewhat 
faster : but this tendency to fatten only continued a certain length 
of time. The diseased action which led to the accumulation of fat 
ultimately produced its absorption; and this observation would 
lead him to the consideration of another fact, that, in some animals 
the liver was found converted into a fatty mass. The bile cells, 
those minute organisms which separate the bile from the blood, are 
often found to contain fat, and the liver itself is also at times found 
to contain a large quantity of sugar. Chemically, sugar and fat 
are nearly allied, the chief difference being that the one contains 
a small portion of oxygen. [Having made some further physio- 
logical remarks, he proceeded to the diseases of the liver.] 
The liver, like every other organ, is liable to have its functions 
deranged, and also to changes of its structure. The structural 
changes were usually the product of inflammation, but not invariably 
so. It was no less important to know that functionary derange- 
ment not unfrequently gave rise to very serious disease. Most 
persons had had practical proof how soon the functions of the 
liver were deranged from mental excitement. Exposure to a high 
temperature was likewise sufficient to produce these and to lay 
the foundation for organic lesions of the liver ; hence, in tropical 
climates, liver affections were the bane of the country. They also 
knew that oxen, sheep, and horses, became frequently affected 
with deranged biliary secretions ; these, therefore, might arise from 
functional impairment or organic lesion. There was one disease 
known as jaundice, which was sometimes caused by simple func- 
tional derangement ; at other times from change of structure: — and 
