540 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
as a more or less abundant flaky precipitate. Gelatine and casoin are 
not completely arrested in the filter by animal charcoal, but the first 
is soluble in acetic acid, and the second, although at first precipitated, 
is at once redissolved by the glacial acid. This process is an excellent 
mode of determining whether the amyloid substance of Bernard is 
present in any tissue, but it is not an economical mode of pre¬ 
paring it in large quantities, and moreover it is necessary to wash the 
precipitate repeatedly with alcohol to get the material free from acetic 
acid, which cannot be altogether got rid of by evaporation. 
3rd process, by means of an alcoholic solution of potash. This 
mode answers remarkably well for dealing with small portions of the 
tissues of young or foetal animals. A strong, nearly saturated solu¬ 
tion of caustic potash in alcohol is to be prepared, it must be used 
soon after being made, as it is likely by keeping to become brown of 
the colour of sherry ; a portion of the tissue to be examined is placed 
in a test tube, and some of the alcoholic solution of potash poured 
in it; it is then let stand for twenty-four hours, when upon shaking 
it, it dissolves away the azotised matters, leaving a white precipitate 
of the amyloid substance. This is to be acted upon again by further 
addition of the same solution, and afterwards washed free of potash 
with alcohol. 
This process is not satisfactory in its application to the tissues of 
the adult animals, for the albuminoid materials are dissolved with 
greater difficulty, and in dissolving, become of so dark a colour that 
it is difficult to obtain a pure specimen even when the tissue is rich 
in animal dextrine. 
Not long since the amyloid substance of Bernard was regarded as 
a product, formed exclusively by the liver ; we now know, however, 
that it is by no means limited to one organ or one tissue, and that 
although the liver is the chief focus of its formation during adult 
life, during foetal existence it is met with much more widely 
distributed. 
On the Formation by the Liver of the Amyloid Substance 
of Bernard. 
Has the liver the power of forming amyloid matter of the first 
species from azotised materials ? This question may be answered in 
the affirmative. The connexion between this substance and sugar 
is so close that the question may be made more general. Are sac¬ 
charine and amylaceous matters formed in the animal economy from 
azotised materials P Chemists have obtained of late years a con¬ 
siderable number of results which tend to show that ternary com¬ 
pounds may result from azotised elements. Lehman obtained sugar 
from hacmatine. Hogs fed for many days exclusively on flesh meat 
are found to have animal dextrine in the liver, and on being killed 
sugar is found in the blood and tissue of that organ. Bitches fed 
exclusively on flesh meat for many days continue to form milk con- 
