700 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



covered the distance in less than two and one-half hours. This 

 is about ten miles an hour, about as fast as an ordinary man 

 rides his bicycle for pleasure. . . . The blood of these four 

 cases [counted by the author, assisted by Dr. W. H. McBain] 

 before the race 'showed no abnormalities. The percentage of 

 polymorphonuclear neutrophiles may perhaps run a little high, 

 but this is to be expected in active young men in the best pos- 

 sible physical condition. After the race the blood was taken 

 immediately, within five minutes from the actual finish. In 

 every case a leucocytosis was found, varying from 14,400 to 

 22,200. The differential count showed that the increase was 

 mainly in the polymorphonuclear neutrophiles" 



That the exciting cause of the leucocytosis was the increase 

 of waste-products, which in turn stimulated the adrenal system, 

 hardly needs to be dwelt upon. Vagal influence incited to in- 

 ordinate activity and controlled the organs charged with the 

 genesis of these particular cells, while the inordinate oxidation 

 processes started by the overactive adrenals in all tissues ac- 

 counts for the general leucocytosis which the word "mainly" 

 implies. 



Myosinogen being a member of the globulin group of pro- 

 teids, the other members of this group should be represented 

 among the cell's products, particularly fibrinogen found in the 

 blood-plasma in association with serum-globulin and serum- 

 albumin. That such is the case seems evident. Stewart 31 

 alludes to the sources of nucleo-proteid in the following words: 

 "In shed and clotting blood, the only possible sources of nucleo- 

 proteid, so far as we know, are the corpuscles and the blood- 

 plates. The red corpuscles we may at once dismiss, for, al- 

 though they contain a small amount of nucleo-proteid, not only 

 do they remain intact under ordinary circumstances during 

 coagulation, but there is the strongest evidence, as has already 

 been pointed out, that they do not make any essential contri- 

 bution to the process. We have left over the leucocytes and 

 the platelets. The latter are said and the former are known 

 to yield nucleo-proteids when they are broken up in the labora- 

 tory; and it is highly probable that from both, but especially 



81 Stewart: Loc. cit. 



