780 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



Fodor, 111 who ascertained that this resistance to anthrax could 

 actually be increased in rabbits by the injection of an alkaline 

 solution, and by Blumenthal, 112 who experimentally found that 

 the formation of bactericidal products in the circulation de- 

 pended upon the- degree of the blood's alkalinity. Calabrese, 

 of Naples/ 13 also conducted a series of valuable experiments in 

 this connection. He immunized animals with attenuated, viru- 

 lent cultures of bacterial toxins at different times, and deter- 

 mined the degree of alkalinity in each instance by an accu- 

 rate dosimetric method. He invariably found the alkalinity 

 of the blood to increase with the degree of immunization, and 

 the alkaline reaction only attained its maximum when the ani- 

 mal had become totally refractory/ The blood reacted toward 

 the toxic agent by a very gradual, though persistent, increase of 

 the alkalinity. Healthy, non-immunized animals, on the other 

 hand, first showed a more or less sudden evidence of alkalinity, 

 but this declined, and the fall became marked during the few 

 hours preceding death. 



In the face of such evidence, to which much more could be 

 added, we can certainly ascribe to the alkaline salts of the 

 blood a most important part in the protective process. But 

 how do they exercise their function? Evidently not as neu- 

 tralizing factors, as already stated, but in virtue of an action 

 directly exercised upon the fluids or cellular elements. And 

 "cellular elements" mean more than the generally accepted 

 sense given these words, if our views are sound, for they in- 

 clude the leucocytes and erythrocytes, the general center of the 

 protective system itself, the anterior pituitary, and its co-center 

 in preserving vital functions: the posterior pituitary body. 



Indeed, the adrenal system asserts itself in a new capacity 

 in this connection, for experimental evidence suggests that, in 

 addition to its other functions, it also governs the alkalinity of 

 the blood. Thus, von Fodor also found that, when rabbits 

 were infected with anthrax, typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, and 

 erysipelas toxins, the alkalinity of their blood rose, but declined 

 as the effects of the disease became more marked. Cantani 



"i Von. Fodor: Centralbl. fUr Bakt. u. Parasit., vol. vii, 1890. 

 "2 Blumenthal: Zeitschrift fur klin. Med., Bd. xxviii, 1895. 

 113 Calabrese: La Semaine M6dicale, Oct. 30, 1895. 



