THE LEUCOCYTES IN ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 697 



as the cells enter the hepatic capillaries, after acquiring therein 

 their adequate supply of oxidizing substance, their normal pro- 

 duction of granules must start at once. An inordinate propor- 

 tion of nucleins in the food soon supplies the blood-stream, 

 through the agency of the cells, with an abnormal quantity of 

 these minute phosphorus-laden bodies. These at first give rise 

 to excessive functional activity, including among other signs 

 the "severe muscular tremors" to which Milroy and Malcolm 

 refer, coupled with an excess of P 2 5 production. Persisted 

 in, however, the excessive (relative) ingestion of nucleins brings 

 on, as do other toxics, adrenal insufficiency, which, by entailing 

 a reduced production of oxidizing substance and trypsin upon 

 which the physiologically perfect intracellular reactions mainly 

 depend, correspondingly lowers the efficiency of the cleavage- 

 processes. This means, instead of the physiologically perfect 

 granules which, we have seen, Milroy and Malcolm found to be 

 proteid in nature, an accumulation in the blood of proteid 

 toxalbumins. 



In their first paper, the above-mentioned investigators 

 draw attention to the two decomposition products considered 

 "as more or less characteristic signs of the decomposition of the 

 nucleins, viz.: the alloxur bases and phosphoric acid/' If our 

 conception as outlined in the preceding paragraph is justified, 

 these alloxuric bases are products of inadequate metabolism, 

 while phosphoric acid is the product of perfect metabolism. 

 Uric acid having likewise been considered by us as a product 

 of the complete process, a rise of alloxuric excretion cannot 

 occur along with excessive phosphoric-acid production. That 

 our conclusion, based mainly on Horbaczewski's work, was war- 

 ranted, is shown by what Milroy and Malcolm term "points 

 of special importance" as results of a series of experiments, 

 namely: "1. There is no doubt that the P 2 5 excretion is 

 increased even when very small doses of thymus are given. 2. 

 ^Relatively, also, the P 2 5 is increased in proportion to the 

 nitrogen. 3. With the small amount of thymus taken there 

 was practically no appreciable alteration in the excretion of 

 the alloxuric bodies, either absolutely or relatively to the total 

 nitrogen or total P 2 5 ." All this serves to emphasize another 

 feature of the problem: i.e., that phosphoric acid is the proto- 



