662 THE INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND IMMUNITY. 



or days before always resisted better than normal rabbits, and 

 sometimes survived when the cultures used were further weak- 

 ened. The splenectomized rabbits simply had their adrenals 

 stimulated by two active toxic agencies, the normal rabbits 

 only by one, and the bacteria in the former were introduced 

 when the blood was filled with defensive bactericidal agents. 

 The fact, however, that the weaker organisms caused death 

 in splenectomized animals in a few hours, whereas normal 

 rabbits survived longer or altogether, is none the less cor- 

 roborative testimony, since it suggests that in the latter ani- 

 mals the only poisonous agents present, the toxins, had been 

 destroyed when formed. Indeed, Courmont and Duffau found 

 that the staphylococcus killed a splenectomized animal in ten 

 hours, while the same dose used in normal rabbits only caused 

 death a week later. 



A predominating feature of all experiments of this kind 

 is the evident compensative influence of adrenal origin 

 so marked at times as to entirely offset the loss and even to 

 temporarily and perhaps permanently, in some instances, pro- 

 vide unusual immunity to bacteria, the source of toxins. Thus, 

 Blumreich and Jacoby 39 observed that when bacteria of vari- 

 ous diseases diphtheria, cholera, etc. were injected into 

 splenectomized animals, these lived longer or died less often 

 than the normal ones. They conducted experiments with 

 toxins, but these experiments all indicate that adrenal over- 

 activity equalized conditions whether the spleen has been re- 

 moved or not. Briefly, while in some experiments there is dis- 

 tinct evidence of temporary vulnerability to the effects of tox- 

 albumins, i.e., toxins, the majority of them as strikingly 

 illustrate an immediate compensative influence: i.e., a more or 

 less marked increase of the activity of the adrenal system, which 

 floods the circulation with phagocytes, alexocytes, and oxidiz- 

 ing substance. The enlargement of the spleen in fevers is 

 familiar to all clinicians. This may be, besides the result of 

 mechanical engorgement of adrenal origin, an additional source 

 of protection whereby albuminoid bodies are destroyed through 

 the excess of trypsin produced. 



Blumreich and Jacoby: Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, No. 21, 1897. 



