660 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND IMMUNITY. 



2. Diastases derived from leucocytes and glandular elements. 



8. Tissue toxalbumins. 



4- Snake- and other venoms. 



5. Vegetable toxalbumins. 



6. Diastasic ferments. 



At the end of the eighth chapter we offered the following 

 deductions: 1. The cleavage processes to which trypsin sub- 

 mits albumins in the intestinal canal include the preliminary 

 steps of a protective function. 2. The spleno-pancreatic in- 

 ternal secretion is represented by the trypsin which reaches 

 the portal vein by way of the splenic vein, and which continues 

 in the blood-stream the cleavage processes begun in the intes- 

 tinal canal. 3. The main function of the spleno-pancreatic 

 secretion, trypsin, in the blood-stream is to protect the organ- 

 ism from the effects of the toxic derivatives of albuminoid 

 bodies. 



That albuminoid poisons, including bacterial toxins, are 

 destroyed by the spleno-pancreatic ferment trypsin may also 

 be sustained by experimental data. Charrin and Levaditi 35 

 not only ascertained that toxins introduced into the digestive 

 tract were modified, but that the pancreatic secretion played 

 the preponderating role in this connection. Diphtheria bacilli, 

 injected into the pancreas of animals, lost their activity, while 

 the same quantity injected in the muscles proved toxic. Pan- 

 creatic extract itself was found to destroy micro-organisms. 

 In the light of the views herein recorded the active pancreatic 

 substance was the trypsin contained in the veins and ampullae 

 of the organ. Zaremba, 36 in a series of experiments, ascertained 

 that toxins were greatly altered in the digestive tract, espe- 

 cially those of tetanus and diphtheria. To ascertain whether 

 pancreatic ferments exercised any influence in this direction, he 

 prepared extracts of this organ and mixed them with diph- 

 theria toxins. The pancreas extract of young animals pups, 

 rabbits, etc. was found to markedly reduce the virulence of 

 the toxin. Human pancreas was found inactive, but suspecting 

 that this was due to post-mortem changes in the organ, a num- 

 ber of hours having elapsed before the pancreases first obtained 



"Charrin and Levaditi: Semaine M6dicale, March 22, 1899. 



Zaremba: Archiv fiir Verdauungs-Krankheiten, Bd. vi, H. 4, 1900. 



