368 INTERNAL SECRETIONS OF PANCREAS AND SPLEEN. 



Herzen, 7 and defended by Lepine 8 and others that the spleen 

 supplies a ferment which, when added to pancreatic juice, 

 greatly increases its digestive energy. Schiff believed that the 

 splenic substance played an important part in the genesis of 

 the pancreatic proteolytic ferment, but Herzen attributed to 

 it the function of converting trypsinogen into trypsin, the 

 albumin-solving constituent of the pancreatic juice. This 

 subject was more recently studied experimentally by Gachet 

 and Pachon, 9 who were led to conclude, as previously suggested 

 by Laguesse (1893) and Schafer (1895), that the spleen fur- 

 nishes a true internal secretion which possesses a special 

 affinity for the pancreas, the protrypsin of which it transforms 

 into trypsin, as suggested by Herzen. This substance loses its 

 properties at the boiling-point; is precipitated, when in aqueous 

 solution, by alcohol; and is, therefore, of the nature of a fer- 

 ment. 



Lepine also confirmed Schiff's and Herzen's view by ex- 

 periments in vitro and by blood-analyses. He found that a 

 mixture of pancreas and spleen-pulp in glycerin possessed far 

 more active properties than pancreas alone similarly prepared. 

 On the jother hand, the blood of an animal deprived of its 

 spleen proved almost inert as a tryptic, while the blood of a 

 normal dog possessed distinct digestive powers. Analysis of 

 the experiments of these various authors distinctly indicates 

 that some function of the kind mentioned exists. The ana- 

 tomical relations of the organs involved, however, make it 

 impossible for the internal secretion referred to, to penetrate 

 the circulation without first passing through the liver with 

 the Hood of the splenic vein, which collects the pancreatic inter- 

 nal secretion and carries it to the portal vein. This fact seems 

 to suggest that, besides the amylolytic ferment, the portal 

 carries a ferment to the liver calculated to insure the tryptic 

 action upon albumins and kindred bodies. If we consider that 

 we have in the blood of the portal channels all the products 

 of digestion and that trypsin is "applied solely to albuminoid 



7 Herzen: Revue G6nerales des Sciences pures et appl., vol., 1895. 



8 Lepine: Societ6 des Sciences Medicales de Lyon, July, 1895. 

 Gachet and Pachon: Archives de Physiologie, April, 1898. 



