THE ADRENAL SYSTEM AND ANTITOXIC SERUM. 641 



and in opposition to classic teachings, that poisons do not exert 

 their destructive action directly upon the blood, and that in 

 our analysis we must consider all the acute symptoms of poi- 

 soning which appear to helong to the domain of the adrenal 

 system alone as a separate entity: i.e., a symptom-complex with 

 which "blood-destruction," or "haBmolysis," is not concerned as 

 a causative factor. 



The question has now become simplified. We have not 

 only eliminated the haemolytic property from all poisons, 

 venoms, toxins, alkaloids, etc., but, recognizing the unity 

 which all these destructive agencies undoubtedly show, we have 

 reduced the working elements of the inquiry to two approxi- 

 mately known quantities, Nood and toxic, which we can now 

 transform into blood versus toxic, and study as independent, 

 though mutually related, propositions. 



A general function 'betokens a broad principle of action. 

 Not only must such an attribute exist, but, as the function in 

 question is one directly connected with the preservation of life, 

 it must be a predominating one. 



Is there such a predominating attribute in the physical 

 make-up of serum proper? That blood-serum is a mere men- 

 struum has been repeatedly shown. Even the normal serum 

 of animals that are naturally refractory to certain toxins was 

 found by Calmette, 25 for example, to have no influence what- 

 ever upon those toxins in vitro. Of course, this only refers, as 

 regards physical effects, to an animal's own serum or to that 

 of animals in which it possesses kindred chemical properties. 

 The serum of a particular species possesses physical properties 

 peculiar to that species, and when used in others in which the 

 constituents vary quantitatively it may produce more or less 

 marked cytolysis, which may culminate in death. Thus, the 

 venous transfusion of a small quantity of a normal dog's serum 

 into a rabbit will soon prove fatal: the dog's serum is simply 

 not adapted structurally to the globulins and other bodies in 

 the rabbit's serum. This fact in itself furnishes evidence that 

 blood-serum is a mere vehicle, and that what antitoxic bodies 

 are contained in it are foreign to its own composition as serum. 



26 Calmette: Annales de 1'Institut Pasteur, vol. x, 1897. 



