RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SPLEEN AND PANCREAS. 367 



Yet there is a possibility that the flow of amylopsin in the 

 intestine, which the enhanced activity of the pancreas must 

 undoubtedly increase, may be reabsorbed by the venules, and, 

 being carried into the portal system, produce conversion of the 

 glycogen precisely as if it had entered the portal vein by the 

 way of the splenic vein. But we have seen that, while removal 

 of the pancreas is rapidly followed by death, very large por- 

 tions of the gland can be safely removed. Admitting that the 

 operators may have left the portions related with the pan- 

 creatic duct, how could we account for the effects of trans- 

 planted fragments in arresting the glycosuria caused by re- 

 moval of the pancreas, recorded by Minkowski 5 and Hedon? 6 

 As long as fragments transplanted subcutaneously remained 

 normal no glycosuria occurred; it reappeared, however, when 

 these fragments became histologically impaired. It is evident 

 that the only channel here for the amylolytic ferment produced 

 could be the blood. Thus carried to the heart, it then pene- 

 trated the liver by way of the hepatic artery, and reached the 

 intercellular capillaries and the glycogen precisely as if it had 

 penetrated the organ by way of the portal vein. Although but 

 a small quantity of the ferment could thus reach the liver, it 

 was evidently sufficient to convert the amount of glycogen 

 required to build up the very limited proportion of sugar found 

 in the normal blood, as previously shown. Again, we have 

 seen that the product of intestinal reduction is maltose, while 

 the urine of Crof tan's animals when stimulated with supra- 

 renal extract gave dextrose in very great quantities: a feature 

 denoting successive processes. This and the other facts ad- 

 duced appear to us to contribute additional evidence to the 

 view that the dextrose- forming ferment enters the portal system 

 by way of the splenic vein. 



THE FUNCTIONAL KELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PANCREAS 

 AND SPLEEN. 



The internal secretion of the pancreas and that of the 

 spleen may perhaps be best studied by submitting to a care- 

 ful analysis the hypothesis advanced by Schiff, sustained by 



Minkowski: Verhandl. d. XI Congr. flir Inn. Medicin, Wiesbaden, 1892. 

 8 H6don: Archives de Physiologie norm, et path., vol. iv, 1900. 



