746 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



submitted in the foregoing pages. Trypsin, we have seen, is 

 the bactericidal agent of this body, the complement, the cytase, 

 etc. To give alexin an autonomous position in our analysis does 

 not, therefore, seem necessary. 



THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF ANTITOXIN. The oxidizing 

 substance and the alexins are thus eliminated from the list of 

 agencies upon which the title of "active principle" might be 

 bestowed. Trypsin, on the other hand, remains, having shown 

 itself, indeed, as an autonomous body, distributed throughout 

 the entire organism, endowed with all the attributes that an 

 agency destined to chemically dissociate bacilli, their toxins, 

 and other albuminoid poisons should possess. Though its full 

 efficiency in the organism requires the heat-energy developed 

 by the reaction between fibrinogen and the oxidizing substance, 

 all the evidence points to trypsin as the active principle of anti- 

 toxin. 



Though this coincides with Bordet's view that there is but 

 one complement as against Ehrlich's that there is a multi- 

 plicity of them, our conception of the physio-chemical nature 

 of this body is evidently sustained by the latter scientist's chem- 

 ical analyses of this body, for "he believes," writes D. H. 

 Bergey, 82 "the complement to be of the nature of an enzyme, 

 and, therefore, the substance by means of which the immune 

 body really brings about the solution of the corpuscles." That 

 trypsin is an enzyme and that it dissolves the corpuscles in 

 ha3molysis we have seen. 



The role of trypsin and its relationship with the functions 

 of the adrenal system as influenced by toxics is well shown by 

 the experimental work of A. C. Abbott. Bergey, in the article 

 previously quoted, also says: "It has been known for a long 

 time that under the influence of fasting, excessive exercise, loss 

 of sleep, etc., the organism is less resistant to disease than when 

 functioning normally. It has been pointed out by Abbott 83 

 that, through the influence of alcohol, rabbits could be made 

 more susceptible to infection by means of staphylococci and 

 streptococci." In experiments by both of the above-named 



82 D. H. Bergey: American Medicine, Oct. 11, 1902. 



83 Abbott: Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 1896. 





