SACCHARINE FUNCTION OF THE LIVER. 215 
All the bloods, except the hepatic, seemed to be free of 
glucogen as well as sugar; for none of them, with that ex¬ 
ception, gave any evidence of its presence after being treated 
with saliva in the usual way. 
On examination of the frozen liver (after three hours), 
which, in the other cases, was not allowed to thaw before 
being put into boiling water, the decoction was found to re¬ 
duce the copper readily. 
On opening the stomach, nothing was found in it except 
some neutral mucus. The intestines were equally destitute 
of food, and in the rectum only a very small quantity of faeces 
was found ; so there could be no doubt as to the animal being 
in a fasting condition. 
The only point now remaining was to determine quantita¬ 
tively the increase in the amount of sugar in the liver after 
its removal from the body, and for that purpose we preferred 
operating on an animal fed on a mixed diet. 
Exp. 7.—A small dog, which had been previously fed on 
animal diet, received a full meal of bread and milk. Five 
hours afterwards the animal w ; as pithed, and a portion of the 
liver rapidly sliced off, and immersed in a freezing mixture. 
A ligature was placed on the portal vein, and its blood collected 
before the circulation had ceased. 
On examination, this blood was found to contain a small 
quantity of sugar, derived no doubt from the food. Bernard, 
1 believe, has erred in supposing that all the saccharine 
matter found in the animal organism is formed out of the 
glucogen produced in the liver. This, no doubt, is the case 
in the carnivora when the diet is restricted to food incon¬ 
vertible into sugar in the alimentary canal, but cannot be 
regarded as the natural state of things either in the omnivora 
or herbivora; for the food of the latter not only contains 
sugar, but its amylaceous elements may be converted into 
that substance in the process of digestion. The sugar 
found in the bodies of animals fed on a mixed diet ought 
therefore to be regarded partly as the direct product of the 
food, and partly as derived from the glucogen formed in the 
liver. 
Bernard’s chief argument against this view is founded on 
the fact that the livers of dogs fed on a mixed diet contain no 
more sugar than those fed on purely animal food. In my 
opinion, however, this fact is not sufficient to decide the 
question; for, as the liver does not store up sugar, the 
quantity it at any time contains is no criterion of the amount 
produced in it. Moreover, the sugar derived from the food 
need not be expected to be found in the liver. Had Ber- 
