To determine the gaseous exchange of the liver the total blood supply of the liver must be estimated. We have determined the rate of flow to the liver by the portal vein and the rate of flow from the liver by the hepatic vein. We have taken the arterial supply to be the difference between the two.The oxygen used by the liver has been estimated in two ways.(1) In the majority of experiments the following was the procedure. Let the observed difference in oxygen content of 1 c.c. of blood from the portal vein and hepatic artery be A and that between the hepatic vein and hepatic artery B, and the ratio of flow in c.c. per minute along the portal vein r and the hepatic vein R.The oxygen used by the liver L is L=(BxR)-(A xr). (2) In the minority of experiments-let the observed difference between the oxygen content of the blood in the portal and hepatic veins be C, the other quantities involved being as above, L=B x (R-r)+(Cx r). In some of the experiments the blood of the portal vein was cut off from the liver and diverted into the jugular or brachial vein and the oxygen taken up by the liver determined by the differential analysis of hepatic vein blood against arterial.Cats were used in the experiments. They were anwsthetised with chloroform followed by A.C.E. mixture and urethane. The blood-pressure was recorded from one carotid artery, and arterial blood Xwas drawn from one femoral artery which was tied. Hirudin solution was put in the cannulas inserted into the various veins and hirudin injected into the circulation just before the diversion of the inferior vena cava blood,

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MOST of the facts recorded in this short preliminary paper were observed in the course of an investigation of the fate of peptone in the lymphatic system. The action of peptone on the clotting power I deemed of sufficient importance to deserve a special investigation, but I shall do no more here than record some of the effects observed, without attempting to give an explanation of the facts, until I have made more experiments.

IN 1881 Hofmeister first published the view that the peptone formed in digestion in the stomach and small intestine is on absorption by the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal mainly taken up and assimilated by the leucocytes of the adenoid tissue there present, and is then carried into the blood (by the way of the thoracic duct) transformed in such a way that it no longer gives the reaction characteristic of that substance. It will be well to state very briefly what led Hofmeister to this opinion. Although it has been called in question notably by Briicke', Voit and Bauer2, and Eichhorst' that the proteids taken as food are actually absorbed as peptones, and the view put forward that much is or could be absorbed as albumins and globulins merely in solution in the acid or alkaline fluids of the alimentary canal, still since the researches of Pl6sz4, Maly' and others, who showed that peptone can replace ordinary proteid as food, it has been generally admitted that the digestion of proteid which can be accomplished in a flask in the laboratory is a crude imitation of what takes place in the organism. The more recent researches of Lea6, in pointing out the differences that obtain in the two cases, do not lead to reason for doubting that proteids are transformed into peptone, and that, as soon as they are formed, absorption of them begins. 1 B rucke. " Beitrage zur Lehre uber die Verdauung." Sitzungsber. d. A kad. d. WiMU.