Effects of Extirpation of the Salivary Glands. 43 



in any remote organ (" Die Chemische Koordination der Funk- 

 tionen des Korpers," Ergcbnisse der Physiologic, Jahrgang v, p. 

 670). The only word to which I could take exception in this 

 explanation of Bayliss and Starling is the word "accidental" 

 (" Zufdllige " Nebenprodukte). I should like to enlarge this con- 

 ception when applying it to the digestive tract, and state that 

 the various segments of the digestive tube are correlated and co- 

 ordinated by a sensitiveness not ojilj to accidental prodiicts, but to 

 the regular by-products which are known to accompany the 

 formation of the specific products of the organs of digestion. 



An infirmity in the experimental logic, suggestive of a meta- 

 bolic by-product produced in the salivary glands during activity 

 which might be regarded as a chemical messenger to the secretory 

 apparatus of the stomach, might be found in the occasional failure 

 to produce total loss of gastric secretion after the salivary glands 

 are removed. In other words, we should expect to find invariable 

 " Ausfalls-Erscheinungen," phenomena of lapse or total deficiency 

 of gastric secretion. That these do not occur after the salivary 

 glands are extirpated with that regularity that is necessary to 

 justify the use of the term " hormo7i," is at least partially explained 

 by the existence of several other sources wherefrom the secretory 

 apparatus of the stomach may receive its stimulations ; these other 

 sources have been sufficiently considered in the preceding and in 

 the Biochemische Zeitschrift, Vol. xi, p. 253. 



I do not wish to be understood as asserting that an extract of the 

 inactive submaxillary gland alone can have an effect in raising the 

 amount and proteolytic activity of gastric juice, but only, that, if it 

 possibly could exert such an effect, not sufficient time was allowed 

 after the injection in Dr. Loevenhart's experiments to adequately 

 test this point of inquiry. 



If there is anything of importance that has revealed itself to 

 us since the publication in the Biochemische Zeitschrift, Vol. xi, 

 p. 238, it has come through experimental study of the occasional 

 long latent period after injection of some salivary extracts and not 

 after others. This has suggested the existence of chemic sub- 

 stances which inhibit or check gastric secretion. These substances, 

 if they exist as definite chemical bodies, must be more abundant in 

 resting, than in functionally active, salivary glands. 



