DUCTLESS GLANDS 149 



germicidal and antitoxic substances in the body are originally derived 

 from certain ductless glands, the immunizing mechanism in question 

 comprising the "adrenal system" (adrenals, pituitary and thyroid). 

 He holds that the adrenal secretion mobilizes zymogens in the body, 

 endowing them with their ferment-activities, that secretin is "adren- 

 oxidase," that enterokinase is adrenoxidase plus nucleo-proteid, that the 

 pituitary body has no internal secretions, but is the general and govern- 

 ing center of the sympathetic system and of all vegetative functions, 

 that, as an immunizing center, it is the homologue of the " test organ " 

 of mollusks and other invertebrate animals, and that the body at large 

 is protected from disease by an "auto-antitoxin" composed of the in- 

 ternal secretions of the adrenal (adrenoxidase; Ehrlich's amboceptor), 

 of the pancreas (trypsin; Ehrlich's complement), of the spleen and 

 leucocytes (nucleoproteid), and of the thyroid and parathyroids 

 (thyroiodase; Wright's opsonins). Upon this theoretical substructure, 

 which was arrived at by deductions based upon clinical and experimental 

 data, including some of his own, the work of a mind of mathematical 

 cast, Sajous has erected a complete system of medicine, connecting his 

 ideas with all known diseases and their treatment.^® 



Without presuming to discuss the merits of these different views, 

 it may be said that their very complexity indicates that present knowl- 

 edge is in a state of flux and that only the surface of the subject has been 

 scratched so far. We can not object that "facts not opinions" are 

 wanted here, for the collective mass of observations and experiments is 

 enormous. But all recent investigations, those of Abderhalden on the 

 protective ferments of the body, for instance, indicate a general reaching 

 out for a larger correlation or synthesis, which shall weld so many 

 seemingly contradictory observations into a harmonious whole. In 

 1912^*^ von Behring included as "agents of infection," pathogenic 

 microorganisms and their toxic products and the poisons produced by 

 animals (venoms, etc.) and the higher plants (abrin, ricin, ergotin, 

 etc.), and it would seem even reasonable to include in this group certain 

 mineral poisons like arsenic or lead, the action of which mimics an 

 infectious disease. In February, 1914^^ von Behring made another 

 generalization of equal sweep, in which he brings such concepts as 

 idiosyncrasy, susceptibility to disease, diathesis, anaphylaxis and super- 

 sensitiveness to toxins into one and the same category. The Viennese 

 clinicians associate diathesis with the ductless glands. Sajous asso- 

 ciates the ductless glands with immunity from disease. This is all that 

 can be affirmed of present theories of the subject. 



29 Sajous has given a recent presentation of his views in American Medi- 

 cine, Burlington, N. Y., 1914, XX., 199-210. 



30 E, von Behring, "Einfiihrung in die Lehre von der Bekiimpfung der 

 Inf ektionskrankheiten, " Berlin, 1912. 



SI Schmidt's Jahrb., Bonn, CCCXIX., 113-124. 



