The Resistance of Pups to Late Chloroform Poisoning in Its Relation to Liver Glycogen

The relative difficulty with which the characteristic central lobular liver necrosis can be produced in young pups after chloroform administration is in some way referable to the high glycogen contents of their livers. Evidence for this conclusion lies in the following facts: 1. Pups can readily be made to show the central liver necrosis which is found in chloroform poisoning in adults, if, prior to the administration of chloroform, they have been starved or starved and made diabetic by phlorhizin. 2. A single quantitative experiment showed that the liver of a normal, well nourished pup, twenty-four hours old, contained as much as 9.07 per cent. of glycogen. 3. The feeding of carbohydrates to adult animals lessens their susceptibility to the production of liver necrosis by chloroform.