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STORAGE OF PROTEIN IN THE LIVER. 389
that is, an increase in the quantity of calcium in the liver causes a diminu-
tion in the iron, and an increase in the iron causes a decrease in the calcium.
Copper seems to be a physiological constituent, and occurs to a considerable
extent in Cephalopods (Henze l
). Foreign metals, such as lead, zinc,
arsenic, and others (also iron), are easily taken up and combined by the
liver (Slowtzoff, v. Zeynek, and others 2
).
v. Bibra 3
found in the liver of a young man who had suddenly died
762 p. m. water and 238 p. m. solids, consisting of 25 p. m. fat, 152 p. m.
protein, gelatin-forming and insoluble substances, and 61 p. m. extract-
ive substances.
Magnus-Levy 4
found in the liver of a healthy suicide 606 p. m.
water, 394 p. m. solids among which 212.8 p. m. fat occurred. If the
total nitrogen, 27 p. m., is calculated as protein the amount would be
approximately 169 p. m.
Profitlich 5
found 68.2-75.17 per cent water in the dog liver and 70.76-
72.S6 per cent in the ox liver. The relation N : C in the fat and glycogen-free
dried substance was 1:3.21 in dogs and 1:3.13 in oxen or about the same as in
flesh (see Chapter XI).
The quantitative composition of the liver may show great varia-
tion, depending upon the kind and amount of the food supplied. The
amount of carbohydrate (glycogen) and fat may vary considerably,
which is due to the fact that the liver is a storage-organ for these bodies,
especially for the glycogen.
Based upon special experiments, Seitz claims that the liver is a
storehouse for protein also. In experiments on hens and ducks which
had previously been starved, he found that the liver took up abundant
protein on feeding meat, and that its weight as compared with the weight
after starvation was doubled or quadrupled. As it is characteristic of
storage or reserve bodies that their amount in the storage-organs on
feeding with such bodies strongly increases in percentage, it is remarkable
in Seitz’s feeding experiments that the percentage of protein in the liver
did not increase, but rather diminished slightly. In this case we did not
have a higher percentage of protein, but an increase in the weight of the
total cell mass of the organ, probably brought about by increased work
of the liver due to the protein feeding. The investigations of Grund 6
have shown that with protein feeding in dogs, the relation P:N in the
1
Zeitschr. f . physiol. Chem., 33.
2
Slo\vtzoff, Hofmeister’s Beitrage, 1; v. Zeynek, see Centralbl. f. Physiol., 15.
3
See v. Gorup-Besanez, Lehrbuch d. physiol. Chem., 4. Aufl., p. 711.
4
Bioch. Zeitschr., 24.
5
Pfluger’s Arch., 119.
6
Seitz, Pfluger’s Arch., Ill; Grund, Zeitschr. f. Biol., 54.
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