632 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND IMMUNITY. 



general affections. Again, the blood in severe cases of septi- 

 ca3mia and cholera literally teems with bacilli: living evidences 

 that the phagocytes, notwithstanding their destructive powers, 

 physical and chemical, over bacteria, have failed in their pro- 

 tective functions. This vast accumulation of pathogenic germs 

 in the blood-stream necessarily involves the production of 

 quantities of toxin. Even admitting the possibility of auto- 

 exhaustion, how could, under such circumstances, any bacilli- 

 ridden and toxin-saturated patients ever survive? We might 

 invoke the potent assistance of the adrenal system and through 

 this a steady outpour of leucocytes, an inordinate degree of 

 hepatic and general cellular activity, etc. But we must not 

 overlook the destructive effect which suprarenal overactivity 

 would thus involve, since the adrenals would then be urging 

 the production of so-called protective cells, which, as soon 

 as they would reach the field of action, would not turn their 

 whole offensive energy against the pathogenic organisms, but 

 contribute to the latter's efforts in seeking general destruction! 

 Quite another position is assumed by Buchner's alexins, 

 however, when they are considered only as leucocytic products 

 functionally associated with Metchnikoff's phagocytes and 

 Pfeiffer's bactericidal serum. In fact, it is probable that the 

 latter owes its properties to Buchner^s alexins; it appears to 

 us that as far as the destruction of bacteria is concerned, phago- 

 cytes and alexins satisfy all the needs of the organism. Not 

 so, however, with the bacterial toxins; nothing, so far, seems 

 to have furnished a clue to the manner in which their virulence 

 is antagonized in the blood-stream. This question will be taken 

 up later on. 



THE ADRENAL SYSTEM AND THE VULNERABILITY OF 

 CHILDREN TO INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



We can reasonably surmise that the tissue-cells are not 

 provided with a special line of defense for each kind of poison, 

 and that all are, in a general way, submitted to the same phys- 

 ico-chemical antagonism when introduced into the body. The 

 effects, we now know, vary with the dose, whether it be a toxin 

 or any other poison; but we also know that the same dose may 

 prove much more active in one individual than in another. 



