712 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



Lenhartz not only confirms this assertion by saying, in refer- 

 ence to the crystals: "They are readily dissolved in warm 

 water, acids, and alkalies, but are insoluble 46 in alcohol"; but 

 we also, it seems to us, can consider, as confirmation of our 

 interpretation of the identity of the granules from which the 

 crystals were derived, his statement that: "fixation of the air- 

 dried preparation for one hour in absolute alcohol and subse- 

 quent staining with Chenzinsky's eosw-methylene-blue solution 

 also gives very good results." 



All these facts further confirm the origin of the eosino- 

 phile leucocytes from the liver, for there is no other path that 

 would have brought them to the lungs. They also seem to us 

 to clearly show that, after their formation by mitosis in the liver, 

 eosinophile leucocytes are carried to the pulmonary lobules. 



What are the physiological functions of eosinophile leuco- 

 cytes? In the ninth chapter (page 481) we suggested that the 

 nervo-vascular mechanism of the lungs was composed of two 

 autonomous, though correlated, systems: the respiratory and 

 bronchial. The respiratory system, according to our concep- 

 tion, is composed of (a) the pulmonary lobules, in the walls of 

 which the blood is oxygenated; (b) the pulmonary artery and 

 its subdivisions, which bring venous blood, adrenal secretion, 

 and hepatic sugar to the capillaries of the lobules; (c) the pul- 

 monary venules and veins, which return the arterialized blood 

 to the heart. The bronchial nervo-vascular system, on the 

 other hand, has for its purpose to supply the oxidizing sub- 

 stance, which, by meeting the hepatic sugar contained in the 

 blood of the lobular capillary, liberates the necessary energy 

 upon which the local functions depend. It thus becomes evi- 

 dent that the lobule is the seat of the respiratory process, and 

 that all correlated organs of the respiratory system, from the 

 nasal cavities down to the terminal bronchial ramifications, 

 are but accessory structures. 



This question has already engaged the attention of pathol- 

 ogists, including Virchow, Wagner, and Cohnheim. Lenhartz's 

 view is fully sustained by our own investigations, however, 

 when he says: "It is not improbable that the majority of the 



These italics are Dr. Lenhartz's. 



