634 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND IMMUNITY. 



parent to offspring must prevail. Ehrlich has also shown that 

 the offspring can acquire immunity from its mother through 

 the placental circulation i.e., from the mother's blood and 

 through her milk.- 



Immunity is not conferred, therefore, through the ger- 

 minal cell by the spermatozoa or by the ovum, but through a 

 medium, the blood or milk, which contains the antitoxic ele- 

 ment, whatever that may be. Yet these two sources of immu- 

 nity, if the adrenal system is at all concerned in the process, 

 must be considered as differing totally one from the other etio- 

 logically. Indeed, in respect to the influence of the maternal 

 blood, i.e., the placental circulation, the human fcetus is merely 

 a part of its mother precisely as is one of her organs. The 

 foetal adrenal system undergoing development, its usefulness 

 as a protective agent is therefore inhibited. In fact, the fcetus 

 may reach maturity notwithstanding the total absence of these 

 organs. 20 As to the influence of maternal milk, which is given 

 the child when it has to depend upon its own protective re- 

 sources, i.e., after birth, we are simply in the presence of 

 a process through which a physiological antitoxic serum is admin- 

 istered and the immunizing attributes of which are communicated 

 to the child. 



In our analysis of the physiology of the mammary gland 

 (page 289) we referred to the fact that the liquid portion of 

 milk was, in the main, blood-plasma, containing, therefore, 

 oxidizing substance. We may now, it seems to us, add Buch- 

 ner's alexins to the list of its constituents. 



Analysis of the pathology of the adrenal system during 

 early life also points to deficient protection from the adrenal 

 system. From the observations of Leconte, Rolleston, Mattei, 

 and his own, Arnaud was led to conclude that 46 per cent, of 

 cadavers showed lesions in the adrenals ranging from slight hy- 

 peraemia to disruptive hemorrhage. A comparative study of the 

 100 cases of suprarenal haemorrhage collected by this author, 

 however, shows that the newborn alone make up 45 of the 46 

 per cent, referred to, so that childhood, adult age, and old 

 age are only represented by the remaining 1 per cent. The 



80 Winckel: "Transactions of the Thirteenth International Congress," 1900. 



