THE PANCKEAS AS AN ENDOCKIN GLAND 



727 



pancreas in non-diabetic syphilitics shows some degree of involvement of 

 the pancreas in every case. The writer is, therefore, strongly of the opin- 



, 



t 



Fig. 5. Atrophy and degeneration of acinar tissue with fibrosis of stroma in 

 chronic syphilitic pancreatitis with diabetes. 



ion that latent syphilis is one of the most important causes of chronic pan- 

 creatitis, whether the latter is associated with diabetes or not. If pan- 

 creatitis is a cause of diabetes, it follows that syphilitic infection has an 



Fig. 6. Higher power view of acinar changes and interacinar fibrosis in chronic 

 syphilitic pancreatitis. Healed, inactive area. 



etiologic significance for this disease. On the other hand, if these chronic 

 inflammatory changes in themselves primarily cause so much destruction 

 of pancreatic tissue that a functional insufficiency manifests itself in the 



