20 TOXINES AND ANTITOXTNES. 



antitoxins are two distinct processes which may, under certain 

 conditions, follow widely different courses. 



Fate of Toxines in the Digestive Tract. The question of what 

 becomes of toxines when they are introduced into the stomach 

 or intestinal canal has a special interest. It is the unanimous 

 opinion of observers that all toxines, including snake poisons, 

 &c., with the single exception of ricine, are absolutely without 

 action upon the system from the stomach. And it has been 

 shown by GiBiER 1 that these toxines do not act by way of the 

 anus. 



CHARRIN and CASSIN 2 assert that absorption of toxines 

 through the intestine takes place when the mucous membrane 

 is injured. 



It was proved by NENCKI and SCHOUMOW-SIMANOWSKI 3 that 

 even large doses were not absorbed in the least through the 

 digestive tract, and that only when huge doses, more than 

 100,000 times the lethal amount, were given, did symptoms of 

 poisoning finally appear. 



These results conclusively show that toxines are not absorbed 

 into the system through the normal intestinal tract. They must 

 therefore either pass unchanged into the excreta, or they must 

 be completely destroyed. RANSOM 4 concluded that the first 

 alternative happened in the case of tetanus poison, but later 

 workers, notably NENCKI and SCHOUMOW-SIMANOWSKI (loc. cit.) 

 and CARRIERS, 5 were unable to detect any trace of toxine in the 

 excreta, even when doses as large as 100,000 times the lethal 

 amount were given ; whilst CARRIERE was also unable to 

 discover any antitoxic function in the serum after the intro- 

 duction of toxine per os. Although KEPIN 6 identified abrine 

 in the faeces he was unable to detect either diphtheria poison or 

 cobra venom. 



Hence, toxines are destroyed ; and in this process three factors 

 must be taken into account viz., the living intestinal wall, the 



1 Gibier, " Effets produits par les toxines, &c., injectees dans le rectum," 

 Sem .Med., 1896, 202 (abst.). 



2 Charrin and Cassin, ' ' Fonctions protectrices actives de la muqueuse 

 intestinale," ibid., 1895, 545. 



3 Nencki and Schoumow-Simanowski, " Die Entgiftung der Toxine durch 

 die Verdauungssafte," Centralbl.f. Bakt., xxiii., 840, 1898. 



4 Ransom, "Das Schicksal des Tet. Giftes nach seiner intestinal Einver- 

 leibung," Deutsch. med. Woch., 1898, 117. 



5 Carriere, "Toxines et digestion," Ann. Past., xiii., 435, 1899 (gives 

 Bibliography); also, "Du sort de la toxine tetanique introduit dans le 

 tube digestif," Soc. BioL, li., 179, 1899. 



8 Repin, " Sur 1'absorption de 1'abrine par les muqueuses," Ann. Past., 

 ix., 517, 1895. 



