488 
Resistance then would be related with the thyroid gland. Metzner ') denied this 
relation. Indeed, he found rabbits whose blood did not destroy atropin at all, but 
when examined macroscopically as well as microscopically, they were found to 
evince a great difference in the sizes of their thyroid glands. The place whence 
they originale seems to be a more important factor. Rabbits from Alsace und 
Leipzig are highly resistant, MerzNer’s laboratory animals from Basel and Bern 
very little. FLEISCHMANN ®*) partly retracted his statement, but he cannot disavow 
all relations between thyroid gland and resistance. In patients with morbus Base- 
dowi he found a stronger “Zerstérend” serum in 30°/) of the cases examined. 
It was established, therefore, that rabbit's blood could render large 
quantities of atropin harmless, but the way in which this is brought 
about is still an open question. Most researchers assume that the 
alkaloid is broken up into its components tropin and tropic acid, a 
simple chemical decomposition ; Mrtzner*) suspects an enzym splitting 
the atropin. DöBriN and FrriscHmanN*) also do not think this 
improbable. Hrrrrer and Fickewirta *) invariably found tropin in 
the urine of the laboratory animals, but could not establish it in 
the serum or the liver. 
Dixon, Ransom, and Hami..*) report that they do not assume a 
destruction of the alkaloids in the body, but that the alkaloid (in 
casu strychnin) is adsorbed and can readily be regained by solvents 
of alkaloids. According to them the intensity of the adsorption varies 
with the “colloidal nature” of the adsorbing substance. For aught we 
know, they have not proved this assertion. Still, they are right, as 
will appear lower down. However, the matter is not so simple as 
they imagine, for the fact that rabbit’s serum adsorbs so intensely 
and dog’s serum does not, cannot presumably be ascribed merely 
to the degree of its “colloidal nature.” 
When an animal after intravenous injection is very little sensitive 
to a poison the chief cause may be one of the following: 
1) MerzneR. Mitteilungen über Wirkung nnd Verhalten des Atropins im Orga- 
nismus. Arch. f. exp. Path. 68, 1912, p. 11—99. M. und HepinNGERr ueber die 
Beziehungen der Schilddr. zur Atropin-zerstérenden Kraft des Bl. Hetzelfde 69, 
1918, p. 272. 
2) FLEISCHMANN. DöBLiN und Fr. Zum Mechanismus der A. Entgift. durch BI. 
etc. Z.schr. f. Klin. Med. Bd. 77, p. 145, 1918. 
8) MerzNER. l.c. p. 155. 
4) DöBrin u. FrEISCHMANN. l.c. p. 149. 
5) HeEFFTER u. FrckewirtH. Ueber das Verhalten des A. im Organismus d. 
Kaninchens. Biochem Z.schr. 40, p. 45, 1912. 
6) Dixon und Ransom. Die elektive Wirkung v. Arzneien auf d. peripheren 
Nervensystem-Ergeb. der Physiol. 12, p. 773. 
Dixon und Hamitt. Secretion and action of drugs. Journ. of physiol. 38, 
p. 314, 1909. 
