750 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



mal, need hardly be repeated. Again, we have seen that the 

 quantity of oxidizing substance produced by the adrenal sys- 

 tem is commensurate with the stimulating activity the poison 

 injected can excite in that system. As the quantity of oxidizing 

 substance produced correspondingly enhances the functional 

 activities of the spleno-pancreatic system and of the leucocy- 

 togenic structures (all else being normal), it is evident that the 

 toxic that will most actively stimulate the adrenal system with- 

 out causing adrenal insufficiency will produce the greatest quan- 

 tity of trypsin. This body in turn being dissolved in a given 

 quantity of blood-serum, the efficiency of antitoxic serum ob- 

 tained as to units will correspond with the stimulating power 

 of the toxic employed. In other words: 



The injection of different toxins into healthy animals, as now 

 practiced to obtain immunizing sera of various kinds, including 

 antitoxin, always leads to the same result: i.e., to the production 

 of a serum containing trypsin as its dominant active principle. 



The proportion of trypsin in a serum thus obtained is com- 

 mensurate with the stimulation of the adrenal system that the toxic 

 injected can cause without giving rise to adrenal insufficiency. 



Again, the use of toxins to obtain antitoxic serum a 

 feature which limits the therapeutical use of the latter by in- 

 spiring fear of complications is not necessary in the light of 

 our views. Indeed, Ehrlich has immunized animals by means 

 of injections of ricin and abrin to the effects of fatal doses of 

 these poisons: a proof that these agents greatly increased the 

 production of trypsin in the experimental animals. Since all 

 poisons capable of safely stimulating the adrenal system pro- 

 duce a serum containing trypsin, we may therefore conclude 

 that: 



Bacterial toxins may be replaced by equally active toxalbumins 

 or vegetable alkaloids to obtain antitoxic serum from animals. 



This raises a question as to whether a more efficacious 

 agent than antitoxin could not be obtained by toxics capable of 

 raising the adrenal functions to a higher potential, thus in- 

 creasing the proportion of trypsin in a given quantity of serum. 

 The answer seems to us, at least, to be embodied in the follow- 

 ing editorial comment 85 : 



88 Journal of the American Medical Association, Ncv. 1, 1902. 



