[ 595 ] 
XXVI. Researches on Sugar Formation in the Liver. By Feedeeick William Pavy, M.I). 
Communicated hy Br. Sharjpey., Sec. B.S. 
Eeceived June 21, — Bead June 21, 1860. 
The following communication is an abridgement of a paper on the same subject pre- 
sented to the Koyal Society in 1858, with some additional matter that has been since 
disclosed by my experimental investigations. The original paper, being deposited in 
the Archives of the Society, is accessible for reference on points of detail that are here 
excluded. 
In 1848 it was announced by Beenaed that the liver enjoyed a sugar-forming function. 
This statement appeared to rest upon irrefutable grounds, and the new function soon 
became almost universally acknowledged by physiologists. An animal which had been 
for some time previously restricted to an animal diet was suddenly killed. Sugar was 
found abundantly in the blood of the vena cava and hepatic veins, whilst none existed in 
that of the portal vein. The tissue of the liver was also found abundantly saccharine, 
whilst no sugar was to be detected in any other organ. I had seen this experiment 
several times performed in Bee^vaed’s laboratory, and had often repeated it myself. From 
the correctness of the description of his results, I entertained no doubt as to the accuracy 
of Beexaed’s deductions, and did not for a moment seek to question them. In the 
course of my experimental research, however, I was conducted step by step to a point 
which has placed me, involuntarily as it were, in antagonism with the glycogenic theory. 
By pushing investigation further than had hitherto been done, I have been compul- 
sorily brought to arrive at conclusions of which I had not the most remote anticipation 
beforehand. 
More recently the existence of a material, allied in its nature to starch, has been 
discovered in the liver which has been looked upon as destined for transformation into 
sugar. This “ amyloid substance ” has been hence called by Beenaed the glycogenic 
matter. The discovery of this substance did not alter his pre-existing views, but simply 
pro\lded a recognizable source for animal sugar. 
The question arising out of my experimental results to be mentioned, is not whether 
sugar can be formed in the animal system independently of a saccharine alimentation, 
but whether the sugar so largely met with in the liver and a certain portion of the 
blood after death by the hitherto adopted processes of examination is to be taken as 
representing an ante-mortem or physiological condition; and whether the liver enjoys 
the special sugar-forming function that has been assigned to it. 
It was upon finding that blood withdrawn from the right side of the heart during 
life differed so much in the amount of sugar it contained from what had been inferred 
4 I 2 
