
1905.| «in Gastric Contents in Malignant Disease of Organs. 157 
due to the absence or marked diminution of the sources from which the cell 
prepares the acid in the plasma supplied to it. 
In such a case there would not be a rebound towards normal acidity on 
removal of the growth, the sub-acidity would remain, and also the condition 
of which it is the reflex would remain in the blood, and favour a reappearance 
of new growth wherever in the body there was a tendency for the cells to 
take on the abnormal type of reproduction. Let us consider briefly the 
conditions under which the cell forms free hydrochloric acid from the blood 
plasma, apart from theories of an older date as to particular salts between 
which hypothetical reactions were regarded as taking place. 
The end result of the normal secretory activity of the oxyntic cell is the 
production from the blood plasma of an acid solution containing 0:2 to 
0-3 per cent. of free hydrochloric acid. That is to say, a solution has been 
produced containing hydrogen and chlorine ions in a certain concentration. 
Now the plasma already contains chlorine ions in higher concentration than 
is necessary to yield the concentration present in the gastric juice, but the 
concentration of the hydrogen ions has to be largely increased in the process 
of secretion, and hence it is evidently upon the concentration of the hydrogen 
ions in the plasma that the work and speed of separation of hydrochloric acid 
in the gastric secretion must depend. 
Whatever view or theory may be taken of the process; whether the 
secretion of acid be ascribed to a greater permeability of the oxyntic cell for 
the hydrogen ion, or a selective absorption for that ion, or an intermediate 
organic compound be supposed to be formed, or a double decomposition 
between acid phosphates of alkalies and calcium, or whatever be the supposed 
process; it is clear that the rate of production of acids, other things being 
equal, must depend on the concentration of the hydrogen ions in the plasma. 
A drop from any cause of hydrogen ions in the plasma must mean a 
corresponding fall in rate of production of acid. 
Now blood plasma is a fluid which is, at the same time, alkaline and acid ; 
it contains hydrogen ions and hydroxy] ions, and accordingly affects indicators 
in different directions (see p. 149). The reaction to phenol-phthaléin shows 
clearly the presence of hydrogen ions, and the work of the oxyntic cell is to 
increase the concentration of these ions in the process of secretion. 
The concentration of hydrogen ions in the blood plasma is excessively low, 
so low that it cannot be estimated by such a method as the methyl-acetate 
inversion method. Anattempt has been made by Hober* by the concentration 
* Pfliiger’s ‘ Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., vol. 81, 1900, p. 535, and ‘ Physikalische Chemie 
der Zelle und der Gewebe,’ Leipzig, Engelmann, 1902, p. 240. 
