47 G MODERN DEVELOPMENTS OF HARVEY's WORK. 



yielding sharp iiiul even dangerous splinters when broken, although 

 these may again be united into a harmless ^Yhole"? ^ 



This question at present we can not answer, but in the pancreas there 

 is an indication that something of the kind takes place, for Lepiue has 

 discovered that while this gland pours into the intestine a ferment 

 which converts starch into sugar, it pours through the lymphatics into 

 the blood another ferment which destroys sugar. Whether a similar 

 occurrence takes place in regard to its other ferments in the pancreas, 

 or in the glands of the intestine, we do not know, nor do we yet know 

 whether the same process goes on in the skin, and whether the secre- 

 tion of sweat, which is nsaally looked upon as its sole function, 

 bears really a relationship to cutaneous activity similar to that which 

 the secretion of bile bears to the functions of the liver. There are indi- 

 cations that such is the case, for when the skin is varnished, not only 

 does the temperature of the animal rapidly sink, but congestion occurs 

 in internal organs, and dropsy takes place in serous cavities, while in 

 extensive burns of the skin rapid disintegration of the blood corpuscles 

 occurs. It IS obvious that if this idea be at all correct, a complete 

 revolution will be required in the views we have been accustomed to 

 entertain regarding the action of many medicines. In the case of 

 purgatives and diaphoretics, for example, we have looked mainly at the 

 secretions poured out after their administration for an explanation of 

 their usefulness, whereas it may be that the main part of the benetit 

 that they produce is not by the substances liberated through the secre- 

 tions they cause, but by those returned from the intestine and skin into 

 the circulating blood. 



How important an effect the excessive admixture of the juices from 

 one part of the animal body with the circulating blood might have was 

 shown in the most striking way by Wooldridge. He found that the 

 juice of tin; thyroid gland, though it is harmless while it remains in the 

 gland, and is probably useful when it enters the blood in small quan- 

 tities in the ordinary course of daily life, yet if injected into the blood 

 will cause it to coagulate almost instantaneously and kill the animal as 

 quickly as a rifle bullet. What is i)owerful for harm is likewise pow- 

 erful for good in these cases, and the administration of thyroid juice 

 in cases of myxcedema is one of tiie most remarkable therapeutic dis- 

 coveries of modern times. Since the introduction by Corvisart of pep- 

 sin as a remedy in dyspepsia, digestive ferments have been largely 

 employed to assist the stomach and intestine in the performance of 

 their functions, but very little has been done until lately in the way 

 of modifying tissue changes in the body by the introduction of ferments 

 derived from solid organs. For ages back savages have eaten the raw 

 hearts and other organs of the animals which they have killed, or the 

 enemies they have conquered, under the belief that they would thereby 

 obtain increased vigor or courage; but the first definite attempt to cure 



1 Practitioner, Vol, XXXV, August, 1885. 



