426 INTERNAL SECRETION 



garded glycolysis, in both the animal and vegetable economies, 

 as typical alcoholic fermentation. Stoklasa found that, in addi- 

 tion to alcohol and carbonic dioxide, lactic acid, and later acetic 

 and formic acids, were formed by organic enzymes in the process 

 of the decomposition of sugar ; according to him, the enzymic 

 processes in the protoplasm are as follows : (i) Primary, the 

 formation of lactic acid by lactolase ; and (2) the formation by 

 means of alcoholase, of alcohol and carbonic dioxide. The pro- 

 cess of decomposition is completed by the enzymes acetolase and 

 formylase, while combustion into carbonic dioxide and water is 

 effected by the addition of oxygen. 



It is true that the processes by which the oxidation of sugar 

 is effected \vithin the organism are in need of further investiga- 

 tion, yet this much may be taken as certain that glycolysis is 

 a process carried out by ferments which are present in all the 

 tissues, and that in all probability the pancreas possesses no 

 specific function in this respect. As Ehrmann and Wohlge- 

 muth's very careful experiments have recently shown, the blood 

 in the pancreatic vein does not contain a larger proportion of 

 diastatic ferment than that in other vessels. 



A specific function in the decomposition of sugar was 

 ascribed to the pancreas by O. Cohnheim, and simultaneously 

 with him but quite independently, by R. Hirsch. According to 

 Cohnheim 's experiments, neither the expressed juice of the 

 muscles nor that of the pancreas possesses any marked glycolytic 

 action when employed alone ; a complete destruction of glycogen 

 is effected only by the combined activity of the two. Cohnheim 

 assumes that the glycolytic ferment contained in the muscles is 

 rendered active by an agent present in the pancreas. This 

 "activator" is not destroyed by boiling, it is soluble in water 

 and alcohol and insoluble in ethgr ; hence it does not partake of 

 the nature of a ferment, but is an internal secretion. Cohnheim 

 investigated the activity of this agent in increasing quantities, 

 and found that its action was inhibited at excess ; he regards 

 this as analogous to the complement deviation reaction. 



Rahel Hirsch found that the glycolytic action of pounded liver 

 was considerably strengthened by the addition of pancreatic ex- 

 tract. She assumes that either a preferment or a kinase is sup- 

 plied by the pancreas, and that this lends to the liver a glycolytic 

 activity. 



Cohnheim's results at first received a measure of confirmation 

 (by Arnheim and Rosenbaum and by Sehrt, whose experiments, 

 interesting to relate, were conducted with muscles from mummies 

 of a period previous to 300 B.C.) ; but Claus and Embden, who 

 carried out a series of very careful experiments in v. Noorden's 

 laboratory with the object of verifying Cohnheim's results, were 

 unable to find any proof of the existence of a pancreatogenic 

 activator, and they ascribe the disappearance of the su^ar to 



