128 THE VENOM OF HELODERMA. 



stance, in the new-born dying of asphyxia, he found many small necrotic areas 

 in the stomach. He believes that a local ischemia is reflexly produced through 

 some irritation of the central nervous system. This condition, combined with 

 the collapse of the circulation and increased gastric secretion, results in hemor- 

 rhagic erosion or ulceration. Beneke's views in the main, however, are purely 

 hypothetical. His experimental evidence, consisting in (1) ligation of the 

 coeliac artery, and (2) injection of adrenalin into the muscularis of the stomach, 

 is inconclusive; nor is his reasoning on the basis of anatomical observations 

 quite convincing. Beneke, therefore, merely suggested the primary digestive 

 nature of these phenomena without any experimental proof. Furthermore, 

 his theory as to the formation of these lesions is probably, in part at least, 

 incorrect, as will be demonstrated later. 



Bolton* reports some very interesting results in his work on the action of 

 gastro-toxic serum. This serum, which is produced by the injection of the 

 mucous membrane of the stomach of the guinea-pig into the rabbit, is not abso- 

 lutely specific in the true sense of the word. It produces necrosis and ulcera- 

 tion of the mucous membrane of the stomach when injected subcutaneously 

 into the guinea-pig, but Bolton was unable to demonstrate any effect upon 

 the gastric glands in vitro. The gastric cytotoxin formed in response to the 

 injection of the gastric-cells seems to be a very complex bodj' — increasing the 

 hemolytic power which is normally present in the blood — containing many 

 precipitins, most of which are absolutely specific, and containing no specific 

 agglutinin for the gastric granules. By means of this serum it seems impos- 

 sible to establish a chronic lesion, unless there is a perpetuation of the acutely 

 produced lesion either by (1) a secondary bacterial infection, or (2) hyperacidity 

 of the gastric juice. The actual necrosis and ulceration is produced by the 

 action of the gastric juice on a cell which is functionally damaged. Hyper- 

 acidity increases the tendency toward ulceration. 



Gay and Southard, f in their studies on anaphylaxis, also report anatomical 

 changes in the gastric mucosa. In studying the causes of death in serum in- 

 toxication, they found hemorrhages in a great many organs. The most mas- 

 sive and most frequently observed occurred in the stomach-wall. Thus 32 out 

 of 41 guinea-pigs dying within 24 hours of the second or toxic injection showed 

 gastric hemorrhage, while 59 out of the total of 86 showed the same phenome- 

 non. They do not consider the lesions as specific for serum intoxication in an 

 anatomical sense, but claim that focal cytolyses of wide distribution occur and 

 that this especially characterizes the action of the toxic phase. Certain dif- 

 fuse fatty changes take place in the gastric epithelia where the local action of 

 the gastric juice can come into play. 



Rosenau and Anderson also describe an acute lesion of the gastric mucosa, 

 which they are inclined to regard as more or less specific because it is confined 

 to the pyloric end of the stomach. In their studies on diphtheria toxin they 

 found that 66 per cent of the 1,879 animals injected with this toxin and dying 



•Proceed. Roy. Soc, 1905-1906. series B, 77, p. 425; series B, 79, 1909. 

 tJourn. Med. Research, July 1908, vol. xix. 



