The liver the regenerator or hydrogenator in animals, or the antagonism between the lungs and the liver / by George Wyld.

  • Wyld, George, 1821-1906.
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The liver the regenerator or hydrogenator in animals, or the antagonism between the lungs and the liver / by George Wyld. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    V ‘i THE LIVER THE REGENERATOR OR HYDROGENATOR IN ANIMALS; OR THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THE LUNGS AND THE LIVER. By GEOKGE WYLD, M.D. The object of this paper is to disprove the doctrine, so universally prevalent, of the liver being mainly an organ for the excretion of the waste of the tissues, and thus vicarious with the lungs; and to pro- pound the idea of the writer, that the liver is essentially a secreting organ in antagonism with the lungs. Or, that, as the lungs are mainly for the oxydation of the system and destruction of the tissues, so the liver is mainlj' for the hydrogenation of the system and regeneration of the tissues. The folloAving (abbreviated) quotations will fully exhibit the pre- valent doctrine concerning the function of the liver to be as above stated. Muller says the liver frees the Mood from an excess of matters con- taining carbon and hydrogen, as the kidneys remove the super- abundance of those materials, which contain a large proportion of nitrogen, (pp. 164, 165.) Tiedemann and Gmelin say that the excess of bile secreted in the tropics is required to compensate for the diminished purification of the blood in the lungs, on account of the rarification of the air. (Muller, p. 166.) Carpenter, in his Physiology, 1842, says : “ The rudimentary struc- ture of the liver in insects is compensated for by the extremely active respiration of these beings, while in molluscs the liver attains a greater developement; and we are at once struck with the fact that the ver bears an inverse proportion to the opportunity afforded by the respiratory organs for the aeration of the blood. In fishes and reptiles the liver is of considerable size, and seems to perform a very important part in the decarbonisation of the blood. In birds, on the other hand, w'here respiration is so much more active, the liver is smaller.” (pp. 439, 440.)