454 Procecdings Columbia Biocheniical Association [April 



lysis may be stipposed to depend, are present in the circulating fluids. 



To test this, giiinea-pigs, rabbits and dogs were made tubercu- 

 lous by inoculating them subcutaneously with tubercle bacilli. 

 After intervals of from five to eight weeks, the animals were bled 

 and their blood tested in vitro and in znvo. In a number of these 

 experiments direct transfusion of the blood was made from the 

 tuberculous animals into normal animals, an amoimt of blood often 

 as great as three quarters of the total blood-volume being thus 

 passed into the circulating System of the normal animals, the normal 

 animals having been previously bled to free them as much as pos- 

 sible from normal blood. The transfused animals were subsequently 

 tested by intraperitoneal injections of tubercle baciUi. 



Neither in the test-tube experiments, nor in normal animals 

 injected subcutaneously, intravenously or intraperitoneally with 

 tuberculous serum, nor even in normal animals directly transfused 

 with large quantities of the unaltered blood of tuberculous animals, 

 has the reaction thus far been obtained. Therefore, the substances 

 responsible for the heightened peritoneal resistance do not, appar- 

 ently, exist in appreciable quantities as circulating antibodies, at 

 least at the stage of the disease studied. The heightened tubercu- 

 lous resistance is apparently due to substances held in fixed tissue 

 cells. 



Evidences of tuberculolytic substances have, however, been 

 obtained in the peritoneal fluids of tuberculous guinea-pigs, soon 

 after the introduction of tubercle bacilli. If these fluids are with- 

 drawn, centrifuged free from form Clements and then introduced 

 into the peritoneal cavaties of normal guinea-pigs, tliey confer 

 upon the normal peritoneal cavities a slight power of destroying 

 tubercle bacilH. It is suggested, therefore, that fixed tuberculolysins 

 are set free by the peritoneal cells in response to the presence of 

 tubercle bacilli, and that these lysins account for the heightened 

 resistance to intraperitoneal reinoculation with tubercle bacilli. 



64. The enzymic power of duodenal contents as a means of 

 diagnosis of the functional activity of the pancreas. Burrill 

 B. Crohn. {Pathological Lahoratory, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New 

 York City.) The Einhorn duodenal pump was used, in these 

 studies, to obtain duodenal material. This Instrument consists of 

 a small acorn-shaped metallic capsule (perforated), to which is 



