THE INTERNAL SECRETION OF THE PANCREAS 425 



based his theory, namely, the diminution in clinical diabetes of 

 the glycolytic ferment in the blood, we are led to the conclusion 

 that the theory is untenable. Moreover, the disappearance at 

 blood-temperature of sugar from the blood is no proof of the 

 presence of a glycolytic ferment ; for, on the one hand, it is 

 difficult to ascertain the exact amount of sugar present in a fluid 

 containing albumin, while, on the other, the alkaline contents are 

 sufficient to account for an apparent decomposition of sugar 

 (Bendix and Bickel). It is evident, then, that Lepine's theory 

 is lacking in foundation. 



Lepine himself, however, abandoned his original theory and 

 assumed the existence in diabetes of a substance inhibitory to 

 glycolysis. He and Boulud succeeded in isolating crystalline 

 bodies from the urine of diabetic and other patients, the exhibition 

 of which produced glycosuria in healthy animals. This sub- 

 stance is said to become decomposed by passage through the 

 vessels of the pancreas. More recently still, Lepine again asserted 

 his belief in a pancreatic internal secretion with the function of 

 promoting glycolysis. 



Although it was advanced against Lepine's theory that the 

 normal decomposition of sugar takes place, not in the blood, but 

 in the tissues, it seemed probable that the site of this decomposi- 

 tion lay in the pancreas. In such a case, absence of the pancreatic 

 parenchyma would give rise to insufficiency of the glycolytic 

 ferment and to consequent hyperglyc^emia and glycosuria. This 

 view was adopted by Baldi and was supported by the results of 

 experiment. Pal, however, was unable to find a difference be- 

 tween the sugar contents of the arterial blood and those of the 

 venous blood in the pancreas. Baldi, on the other hand, found 

 a smaller amount of sugar in the pancreatic vein than in the 

 carotid artery ; he also found a diminution in the sugar contents 

 of blood mixed with dextrose, after it had been allowed to circulate 

 through the pancreas. Lepine discovered further that watery 

 pancreatic extracts have a glycolytic action, and that this action 

 is intensified by the addition of acids. From these findings 

 Lepine assumed that a preferment was present in the pancreas, 

 and that this proferment was converted, by the action of the acids, 

 into a glycolytic ferment. 



The presence of a destructive ferment in the pancreas has 

 been confirmed by a large number of authors, but it has since 

 been recognized that, not the pancreas only, but a number of 

 other organs, such as the spleen, liver, lungs, kidneys, muscles, 

 &c., exercise a glycolytic influence. The decomposition of sugar 

 by the tissues even, was regarded as due to the action of oxidative 

 ferments distributed through them. According to later experi- 

 ments by Jacoby, Blumenthal, and N. Sieder, it seems probable, 

 however, that glycolysis is a process sui generis, the details of 

 which are still somewhat obscure. Stoklasa and his pupils re- 



