THE IDENTITY OF ANTITOXIN. 



661 



had been removed from the body, he succeeded in getting that 

 of a boy four and a half years old two hours after death. This 

 organ proved to be distinctly active against toxins, and in sev- 

 eral instances the pancreases of very young children removed 

 immediately after death were very active in the same way. In 

 some, however, and in older subjects and animals, no results 

 were obtained. We have seen that the period of splenic ac- 

 tivity or spleno-pancreatic digestion was the only one during 

 which trypsin was formed, as shown by the experiments of 

 Schiff and Herzen; that Zaremba's exceptions were made up of 

 pancreases in the passive state i.e., when only the inactive 

 zymogens of all three ferments were present is probable. 



The results of removal of the spleen, in this connection, 

 are also suggestive. But here it is necessary to avoid being 

 misled by the action of injected toxics upon the adrenal sys- 

 tem, since a sufficient dose will kill an animal irrespective 

 of the presence or absence of its spleen. This is well illus- 

 trated in the following experiment: "Martinotto and Barbacci 37 

 studied the function of the spleen in infectious diseases by 

 injecting anthrax bacilli into guinea-pigs and rabbits, in some 

 of which the spleen had previously been extirpated. The re- 

 sult was the same under both conditions. There were no 

 marked elevations of temperature, but a progressive fall, pre- 

 ceding death." Again, the protection afforded through adrenal 

 overactivity by exciting general leucocytosis and the production 

 of alexins, both bactericidal agencies, must not be over- 

 looked, since removal of the spleen does not reduce the pro- 

 tective powers. Indeed, the accumulation of toxic elements in 

 the blood that follows splenectomy tends to increase the latter 

 and thus compensate for the missing organ's beneficial influ- 

 ence. Both these features are well shown in the experiments 

 of Courmont and Duffau, 38 who found that, in rabbits splenec- 

 tomized from two to twenty-five days beforehand, the staphy- 

 lococcus pyogenes and the bacillus pyocyaneus caused death in 

 a few hours, whereas normal rabbits survived longer or alto- 

 gether. Yet, when attenuated cultures of the very virulent 

 streptococcus were used, animals splenectomized a few hours 



17 Martinotto and Barbacci: II Morgagni, Milan, Sept., Oct., 1891. 

 Courmont and Duffau: Soci6t6 de Biologic, Lancet, June 27, 1896. 



