|(i,S Beard, On the Occurrence of Dextro-rotatory Albumins in Organic Nature. 



producing trypsin and amylopsin, but a further division of labour 

 has taken place in the original single digestive gland, its ferment- 

 producing properties have been localised in a part of the original 

 structure, and this part we term the pancreas-gland, while its other 

 functions have been reserved for the portion of it, which we term 

 the liver. I am not concerned here with the question of the pro- 

 duction of ferments by and in the vertebrate liver. But any tryptic 

 and amylolytic ferments contained in the liver are almost certainly 

 formed in the pancreas-gland. The aspect of the matter concerning 

 us here is this: owing to such division of labour the body-cells, 

 in giving up any earlier powers possessed by them of forming 

 trypsin and amylopsin, are placed more or less at the mercy of 

 organisms, such as some Protozoa, bacilli, etc., which by their 

 ravages create disease. The ferments, produced by these, being 

 the stereochemical antitheses of those of the normal human body, 

 when given the chance, are in this way enabled to attack the body- 

 cells, which have as their sole immediate protectors the cells termed 

 leucocytes. The leucocytes form the first and only real line of 

 defence against the attacks of such micro-organisms. It was 

 Metschnikoff 16 ), who first insisted on these protective powers of 

 the leucocytes. Notoriously, in many forms of parasitic disease, 

 produced by a micro-organism, a bacillus, or asexual generation, 

 such as cancer, the leucocytes are quite unable to cope with the 

 foe. But increasing evidences go to demonstrate, that, if provided 

 with pancreatic ferments as additional weapons of attack, the leuco- 

 cytes can become highly efficient agents against such onslaughts. 

 Moreover, it must not be forgotten, that the ferments are bodies, 

 which do not, to any extent at all events, diffuse or pass through 

 the walls of the alimentary canal and circulate in the blood 



From the point of view of practice it may suffice to note the 

 following. The introduction of pancreatic ferments, such as the 

 new Fair child preparations, into the blood is, as others have 

 demonstrated, a perfectly harmless procedure. In such afflictions 

 as sleeping sickness, malignant malaria, tuberculosis, etc., the 

 organisms concerned are enabled to succeed in their attacks, because 

 of the absence of the naturally protecting ferments, trypsin and 

 amylopsin, but, given these circulating in the blood at the point 

 of attack, the body - - often, as in tuberculosis, aided by the leuco- 

 cytes - is placed in a position not merely to resist the attack, 

 but to defeat it utterly. 



16) Metschnikoff, Elias. Untersuchungeu iiber die intrazellulare Ver- 

 dauung bei wirbcllosen Tiereu, in: Arbeiten a. d. Zool. Inst. zu Wien, V. 5, p. 141 

 et seq., 1884. 



idem. Untersuchungen iiber die mesodermalen Phagocyten einiger Wirbel- 

 tiere, in: Biol. Centralbl., V. 3, p. 560565, 188384. 



