PANCREAS DIABETES. GLYCOLYSIS. 407 



the opinion that we are here dealing with the abolition of one or more 

 bodies which are considered as products of the internal secretion of the 

 glands (hormones according to STARLING) and which in an unknown 

 manner regulate the sugar destruction or carbohydrate metabolism. 



The assumption of an internal secretion is based on the investiga- 

 tions of MINKOWSKI, HEDON,' LANCERAUX, THIROLOIX, and others l 

 upon the action of the subcutaneous transplantation of the gland. 

 According to these investigations a subcutaneously transplanted piece 

 of the gland can completely perform the functions of the pancreas as 

 to the sugar exchange and the sugar elimination, because on the removal 

 of the intra-abdominal piece of gland, the animal in this case does not 

 become diabetic, but if the subcutaneously embedded piece of pancreas 

 is subsequently removed, an active elimination of sugar appears immedi- 

 ately. As this occurs also on completely cutting off the nerve supply, 

 it is explained by the assumption of a formation of a special product 

 in the gland, which passes into the blood; on the other hand ZUELZER, 

 DOHM and MARKER 2 have made preparations from the pancreas which, 

 in dogs as well as in man, cause a diminution in the elimination of sugar 

 (and acetone bodies) in diabetes and an improvement in the general con- 

 dition. 



This internal secretion of the pancreas has in recent times been sup- 

 posed to be connected with the so-called islands of LANGERHANS; but no 

 positive results have been obtained in this connection. Nor are we 

 acquainted with the kind of active substance here formed. 



The glycolytic property of the blood as shown by LUPINE was con- 

 sidered for a time to be due to a glycolytic enzyme formed in the pancreas, 

 and pancreas diabetes used to be explained by the fact that the action 

 of this enzyme was removed when the gland was extirpated. This 

 glycolysis is not sufficient, even if it is derived from the pancreas, to 

 explain the transformation of the large quantity of sugar in the body, 

 and for the destruction of sugar we are also obliged to accept a glycolysis 

 in the organs and tissues. Opinions in regard to this glycolysis differ 

 in certain points. According to one view (SPITZER and others) special 

 oxidases are active in the glycolysis, while another (STOKLASA 3 ) con- 

 considers the glycolysis as analogous to alcoholic fermentation, where we 

 have processes brought on by special tissue zymases, in which lactic 



1 See Minkowski, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 31; He*don, Diabete pancreatique, 

 Travaux de Physiologic (Laboratoire de Montpellier, 1898), and the works on diabetes. 



2 Deutsch. med. Wochenschr., 1908. 



3 Hofmeisters Beitrage, 3, Centralbl. f. Physiol., 16, 17, 18; Ber. d. d. chem. Ge- 

 sellsch., 38; also with Czerny, ibid., 36; with Jelinek, Simacgk and Vitek, Pfliiger's 

 Arch., 101. 



