682 METABOLISM 



demands for sugar may be met without calling on that of the perfusion 

 fluid. 



In spite of the failure to show that the isolated tissues of diabetic 

 animals have a lower glucose-consuming power than those of normal 

 animals, it is important from a practical standpoint that we should 

 know something regarding the possible nature of the disturbance which 

 a removal of the pancreas entails. Even if we could not tell exactly 

 how this disturbance operates, it would be of value to know whether 

 it depends on the removal from the organism of some hormone that is 

 essential to carbohydrate utilization, for, if this were proved to be the 

 case, encouragement would be offered to seek for the chemical nature 

 of this hormone so that we might administer it with the object of re- 

 moving the diabetic state. The hope of a fruitful outcome of such an 

 investigation is encouraged by the success of researches on diseases of 

 other ductless glands, particularly the thyroid. 



The removal of some hormone necessary for proper sugar metab- 

 olism is, however, by no means the only way by which the results can 

 be explained, for we can assume that the pancreas ow r es its influence 

 over sugar metabolism to some change occurring in the composition of 

 the blood as this circulates through the gland a. change which is de- 

 pendent on the integrity of the gland and not on any one enzyme or 

 hormone which it produces. It is obvious that the results of removal 

 of the gland could be explained in terms of either view, and indeed 

 there is but one experiment which would permit us to decide which of 

 them is correct. This consists in seeing whether the symptoms which 

 follow pancreatectomy are removed, and a normal condition reestab- 

 lished, when means are taken to supply the supposed missing internal 

 secretion to the organism; if they should be, conclusive evidence would 

 be furnished that it is by "internal secretion" and not by "local in- 

 fluence" that the gland functionates. 



The experiments have been of two types: in the one, variously pre- 

 pared extracts of the glands have been employed, and in the other, 

 blood which is presumably rich in the internal secretion. The most 

 recent work with pancreatic extracts has shown that injection of pan- 

 creatic extracts into a depancreatized animal produces no change in the 

 respiratory quotient, although injections of extracts of pancreas and 

 duodenum may cause a temporary fall in the dextrose excretion in 

 the urine on account of the alkalinity of the extract. Neither have 

 experiments with blood transfusions yielded results that are any more 

 satisfactory. In undertaking these experiments it is of course assumed 

 that the internal secretion is present in the blood, and that if this blood 

 is supplied to an animal suffering from diabetes because of the loss of 



