THE ACTION OF INTRAVENOUS INJECTIONS OF PAN-
CREAS EMULSIONS IN EXPERIMENTAL DIABETES.
BY ISRAEL S. KLEINER.
(From the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of The Rockefeller
Institute for Mledical Research.)
(Received for publication, September 20, 1919.)
It is evident that the demionistration of a beneficial effect of a
pancreas preparation, when administered parenterally to a
diabetic animal, would be of insportancc both theoretically and
practically. Theoretically it would support the internal secretion
hypothesis of the origin of diabetes. Practically it would suggest
a possible therapeutic application.
The early work in this field was either negative or, as l'fliger,' and
Leschke2 have shown, is open to serious criticism. The usual criterion
was a lowering of the concentration of sugar in the urine or a diminution
of the total 24 hour output of sugar. Either of these effects may easily be
caused by a diminished intake of food, due to the loss of appetite usually
resulting from the treatment, to a change in the character of the diet, or
to an influence on the kidneys. In clinical experience, the feeding of pan-
creas preparations has sometimes seemed to have a favorable subjective
effect but with no constant antidiabetic action. Often this appeared to be
due to supplying the ezternal secretion to patients in need of it. Parenteral
administration usually has not given good results. In a brief résumé of
the literature Allen3 says: "Though pancreas feeding may have at least a
digestive value in some cases of diabetes, injections of pancreatic prepara-
tions have proved both useless and harmful. The failure began with
Minkowski, and has continued to the present without an exception."
The more recent work may be summarized very briefly. Scott4 found
that intravenous injections of water extracts of pancreatic tissue, which
had previously been extracted with alcohol, diminished temporarily the
'Pfluger, E., Arch. ges. Physiol., 1907, cxviii, 267.
2 Leschke, E., Arch. Physiol., 1910, 401.
Allen, F. M., Studies concerning glycosuria and diabetes, Cambridge,
1913, 815.
4 Scott, E. L., Am. J. Physiol., 1911-12, xxix, 306.
153