AND FUNCTION OF THE LIVER. 
21 
product, like it, to return to the blood from which it had been elaborated : it may 
also be inferred, as not improbable, that as the elaboration of sugar is certainly one 
purpose fulfilled by it, so it is more likely that the bile-secreting function properly 
belongs to another apparatus associated with it, that of the excretory biliary ducts. 
Some evidence as to this question which I have sought to obtain from chemical 
investigation, on the whole corroborates, I think, the view above expressed. I made 
an alcoholic extract of portions of the liver of several animals, evaporated this on the 
water-bath to dryness, and employed Pettenkofer’s test for bile. I obtained no 
decisive characteristic reaction, such as is described to ensue if bile or its constituents 
are present ; a very feeble crimson tint was developed in most cases at the moment of 
adding the sulphuric acid, but it very quickly disappeared, and was so faint during 
the brief time it lasted that I cannot think it proves the presence of biliary matter; 
moreover, as it is quite impossible to obtain the parenchyma quite free from the 
minute ducts, some of them may have imparted a slight admixture of bile which was 
not derived from the parenchyma ; or, which is perhaps unavoidable, some oleic acid 
may have been dissolved by the menstruum, and given, as it is said to do, a similar 
reaction with Pettenkofer’s test as bile itself. Before I was aware that albuminous 
matter produced with sugar and sulphuric acid the same reaction as bile, I conceived 
that I had found certain proof of the presence of biliary matter in the cells by applying 
this test to a thin slice of liver and watching the changes under the microscope ; 
under the action of the acid the tissue became much more translucent, and developed 
along its margin a beautiful permanent crimson tint. The very same however, even 
more intense, was produced by treating a section of kidney in a similar way, so that 
it was manifest the reaction depended on nothing special to the liver. 
One other fact we may receive from chemistry, which is also corroborative of the 
view that the sugar and bile are not produced in the same parts, viz. that the bite 
does not contain tlie hepatic sugar. M. Bernard distinctly states this, and on 
repeating the experiment I obtained the same result. Sugar therefore seems to be 
the normal product of the cells, bile of the ultimate biliary ducts. 
Mr. Noad has been kind enough to execute some analyses for me, which go to 
show that the kind of food influences decidedly the amount of sugar contained or 
formed in the liver. The subject of the first was a young dog, who was fed for six days 
on bread and meat; the quantity of sugar contained in his liver, as determined by 
fermentation, was 20-13 grs. per 1000. The second, a young kitten, was fed for six 
days on food as far as possible of the saccharine kind, rice, sugar, arrow-root and 
potatoes ; this disordered her bowels after some days, but by leaving off the rice and 
confining her to potatoes chiefly she recovered her health. Her liver contained 
31-66 grs. of sugar per 1000 ; it also was seen under the microscope to contain much 
oil. Another kitten of the same age was fed for about a week on bread and butter, 
and milk, so as to approach nearly to a diet of oily food ; her liver was quite opake 
from the presence of abundance of oil, much more manifestly being present than in 
the two others ; it yielded by fermentation 21-13 grs. of sugar per 1000. 
