620 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND IMMUNITY. 



"the extrusion of white blood-cells from the frog's mesentery," 

 found "that the vessels in the cinchonized frog were much 

 more contracted and had their walls much thicker than in a 

 corresponding frog without quinine." Wood, on the other 

 hand, says that "it is certain that the alkaloid reduces very 

 markedly the force of the heart" and adds "it is therefore 

 possible that the quinine prevents the outwandering by lessen- 

 ing the force which is driving the corpuscles and at the same 

 time increasing the resistance of the capillary walls." It is 

 evident that the contractions of these vessels witnessed by 

 Hare would, if the foregoing proposition represents the actual 

 mechanism involved, be the normal effect of toxic doses, while 

 the "outwandering" of the leucocytes and the "resistance of 

 the capillary walls" would occur as normal sequences of the 

 process. Underlying it all appears the weak heart, suggesting 

 that its normal stimulant had been reduced quantitatively 

 through the inhibitory action of the alkaloid upon the ad- 

 renal system. 



When all these features of the problem are collectively 

 considered, it seems permissible to conclude that leucocytosis, 

 or at least the more or less prolonged exacerbations of this condition 

 witnessed in various diseases, is the result of overactivity of the 

 adrenal system, induced by the toxins of pathogenic germs, poisons, 

 venoms, products of metabolism, foreign substances, etc., when any 

 of these penetrate the blood-stream in sufficient quantities. 



This not only accounts for the leucocytosis observed in 

 disease and for that witnessed after active exercise, massage, 

 etc., the so-called physiological leucocytosis, but also for 

 that due to the introduction of various drugs into the system: 

 the so-called "medicinal" leucocytosis. The very existence of 

 such a subdivision of the subject as the latter points to a com- 

 mon source for protective functions: one in which the adrenals 

 play a commanding part, if the effects of drugs upon the ad- 

 renal system as depicted in this work at all obtain. 



Further evidence is available in the literature upon the 

 antitoxic effects of various serums. Besredka, 13 for instance, 

 found that leucocytic serum produced effects that varied very 



"Besredka: Annales de 1'Institut Pasteur, vol. xiv, 1900. 



