Nutrition in health and disease : a contribution to hygiene and to clinical medicine / James Henry Bennet.

  • Bennet, James Henry, 1816-1891.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nutrition in health and disease : a contribution to hygiene and to clinical medicine / James Henry Bennet. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

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    were not oven suspected, and which quite justify the views of pathologists of former days as to the pathological importance of the organ. First, it would appear, from M. Bernard's ex- periments, that the low form of albuminous matter which reaches the liver by the portal vein from the intestines undergoes in that organ some kind of modification which renders it susceptible of assimi- lation. The exj^erimental proof of this fact is, that if this albuminous matter is injected into the jugular vein it is eliminated by the kidneys. If, on the other hand, it is injected into the portal vein, so as to pass through the liver before reaching the heart and lungs, it is not excreted by the kidneys as a foreign substance, but probably incorporated with the albu- minous part of the blood.—(Kirke's Physiology, 8th Edition.) Secondly, the same series of experiments proves that the saccharine and amylaceous principles of food which pass through the portal vein into the liver undergo some like change, which renders them very similar to glucose or diabetic sugar, and assimi- lable. If cane sugar is injected into the jugular vein, it is speedily thrown out of the system by the kidneys. If, however, it is injected into the portal vein, and thus passes through the liver before it enters the lungs, no trace of it appears in the urine. —{Idem.) Thirdly, Bernard has proved that the liver lias c 2