260 BIOLOGY. [Book il 



the precise and methodical researches, thanks to which Professor 

 Maurice Schiff has thrown so much light on the function of the 

 spleen, or at least on one of its functions. 



That the spleen and the pancreas could co-operate for the 

 same general function might be deduced from comparative 

 anatomy, as in certain vertebrates these two glands form only 

 one. But the physiological bond uniting them was most difficult 

 to discover. 



Excellent experiments of Corvisart had already estabKshed 

 that the pancreatic juice and even the infusion of the pancreas 

 had the faculty of transforming the albuminoidal substances into 

 peptones incoagulable by heat. In addition Meissner had shown 

 that the formation of the pancreatine in the pancreas is inter- 

 mittent, and that when a person is fasting the pancreas has no 

 longer any digestive power. The case is moreover the same with 

 the stomachal pepsin, which is formed intermittently at 

 the expense of the peptogens introduced into the blood. But the 

 formation of the pancreatine is eubjeeted to physiological condi- 

 tions far more complex ; forasmuch as it is absolutely dependent 

 on the integrity of the spl-een. After the extirpation of this 

 last gland, in effect : — - 



1. The neutral or acidulated pancreatic infusion no longer 

 digests the smallest trace of albumine, whether the pancreas is 

 taken in a fasting animal or an animal in full digestion ; 



2. In these conditions, albumine introduced by a fistula into 

 the duodenum, when this is bound at its two extremities, no 

 longer transforms itself into peptone, either in the fasting animal 

 or the animal in full digestion ; 



3. Finally, always after the extii-pation of the spleen the 

 albumine introduced into the bound duodenum is well digested 

 slowly by the duodenal juice, but is no longer transformed 

 rapidly into peptone after the first hour of stomachal digestion, 

 as happens always in animals still possessing a spleen. 



To make amends, the peptic glands finding in the blood a richer 

 provision of peptogens, forasmuch as the pancreas no longer 



