The liver also produces certain bodies, as urea, which play a very important part in metabolism, and it also serves as a large depot for glycogen, the stored sugar of the body. The liver forms a large amount of glycogen, and stores it up for the wants of the body. By a ferment, also produced by the liver cells, the glycogen is transformed into sugar, and in this form is given off to the body. If the liver were extirpated the blood would contain no more sugar, as was found by Minkowski through experiments on animals. Besides sugar, the liver also produces, as just mentioned, another very important substance, and this is urea. This body is produced in the liver from ammonia, which, as the final product of decomposition of albuminous substances, is brought to the liver by the blood. From carbamic acid, also, the liver forms urea. Ammonia and carbamic acid are poisonous products which arise from the decomposition of albuminous material, and, by transforming them into urea, the liver saves our body from continuous intoxication. Thus we can see that in diseases of the liver the quantity of urea falls and the elimination of ammonia increases. A normal man eliminates about thirty to forty grammes of urea in a day. Much smaller quantities per diem would thus indicate diminished activity of the liver. Besides glycogen and urea, the liver also produces another substance, which is indispensable to the perfect process of digestion and assimilation. This is the bile. The bile transforms fat in the intestine into an emulsion, and thus makes it possible for the fat-splitting ferment of the pancreas to act upon it, and to split it up into glycerin and fatty acids, and thus make it serviceable for the uses of the organism. The bile augments the action of the pancreatic ferments; it stimulates the movements of the intestine, and is a powerful antiseptic to the contents of the intestine, as it hinders to a certain extent their putrefaction. Another important action is that it increases the water content of the fæces, and thus materially helps an easy evacuation of the bowels.