754 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



2. The oxidizing substance and the trypsin is neverthe- 

 less formed in excess owing to the prophylactic functional activity 

 of the adrenal system. 



8. The 'trypsin being deprived of the heat-energy of which 

 fd>rinogen is the primary source, it remains unused and accumu- 

 lates in the organism, as shown by the Widal reaction. 



4. The excess of oxidizing substance produced propor- 

 tionally enhances general cellular metabolism, and, the formation 

 of peptones and myosinogen being reduced owing to inhibited leu- 

 cocytogenesis, the {( typhoid state" is engendered. 



That these conclusions are based on sound premises is 

 shown by the following quotations from two papers, one by 

 Naegeli, 88 the other by M. L. Eichardson. 89 The former in- 

 vestigator found that "the neutrophile cells decrease rapidly in 

 the first stage of typhoid fever, soon reach the half of their 

 usual number, and gradually further decrease up to the stage 

 of defervescence. In the convalescence they begin to increase, 

 at first slowly, and then rapidly. It is usually only after many 

 weeks that the normal figures are regained.' 7 



The absence of fibrinogen, by depriving the trypsin of its 

 bactericidal properties, must necessarily give free sway to the 

 latter. Richardson writes as follows: "If we take the fresh 

 blood-serum from a typhoid patient at any stage of the disease 

 or convalescence and combine it, for example, with an equal 

 quantity of a bouillon culture of the typhoid bacillus, we get, 

 in the vast majority of cases, not destruction, but abundant mul- 

 tiplication of the typhoid organisms." Still, if all our estimates 

 of the manner in which the results of the experiments in vitro 

 previously analyzed are sound, normal serum should supply the 

 heat necessary to energize the trypsin. Richardson also satis- 

 fies this feature of the problem by the following remark: "If 

 we introduce the mixture of serum and bacilli into the peri- 

 toneal cavity of a normal guinea-pig, we find that there is not 

 only a complete absence of multiplication of the bacilli, but 

 there is absolute destruction and disappearance of the organ- 

 isms": i.e., Pfeiffer's phenomenon. 



It now becomes apparent that it is not by adding an anti- 



M Naegeli: Correspondenz-blatt fur Schweizer Aerzte, No. 18, 1899. 



89 M. L. Richardson: The Journal of Medical Research, vol. vi, July, 1901. 





