216 
SACCHARINE FUNCTION OF THE LIVER. 
nard gauged the sugar present in the blood, instead of 
that in the liver, after each kind of diet, the result obtained 
would, I believe, have led him to a different conclusion. 
This being a point of great practical importance in the treat¬ 
ment of diabetes, I may be here permitted to mention that * 
I have occasionally found nearly twice as much sugar in the 
blood of an animal on a mixed, as in that of one feeding on a 
purely flesh diet. 
To return to the last experiment. About two hours after 
the death of the animal, portions of the frozen part of the 
liver, and of that which had been kept warm in the body of 
the animal were carefully weighed, and the proportions of 
sugar they respectively contained estimated by volumetric 
analysis. 
The portion of frozen liver was found to contain 0*333 per 
cent., and that of the other T55 per cent, of saccharine mat¬ 
ter. It is thus seen that in two hours the sugar in the liver 
had augmented nearly five-fold. As Bernard has shown, the 
simple washing out of the liver by passing a stream of water 
through its vessels, would remove all the sugar anteriorly 
formed. On placing it again aside for a short time, a fresh 
portion of sugar would form in it at the expense of the glu- 
cogen. 
0*333 per cent, of sugar seems a small quantity; but if we 
suppose a liver weighing, as in man, not less than fifty oz., to 
contain 0*333 per cent., above 70 grs. of sugar would be 
present in it at the moment of death—no very insignificant 
quantity, when it is recollected that sugar is removed from 
the liver with every pulsation of the heart, to be partly 
consumed, and that it is as continually supplied by the 
organ. 
The results of the experiments now related do not there¬ 
fore in any way countenance the notion that sugar is not 
produced in the healthy animal body. On the contrary, such 
conclusions as they afford *are altogether in favour of the 
generally received views upon the subject. 
From the preceding experiments the following conclusions 
mav be drawn : 
1st. Sugar is a normal constituent of the blood of the 
general circulation. 
2dly. Portal blood of an animal on mixed diet contains 
sugar. 
3dly. Portal blood of a fasting animal, as well as of an ani¬ 
mal fed solely on flesh, is devoid of sugar. 
4thly. The livers of dogs contain sugar, whether the diet is 
animal or vegetable. 
