Note upon the supposed presence of a gastric hormon in the salivary glands

There was published in the Proceedings of this Society in June of last year 1 a statement of the results of clinical and experimental observations upon the influence of the salivary glands on the secretion of normal gastric juice. It was stated that in four cases of Mikulicz's disease, uncomplicated, no gastric juice was secreted during the disease. The experimentally analogous condition brought about by removal of all the salivary glands in dogs also gave the same result, namely, a permanent stoppage of the normal gastric secretion. It was stated that when food, insalivated by other healthy dogs, was given to such animals no flow of gastric juice followed. If, however, extracts made of salivary glands from normal dogs, were injected, either intravenously or intraperitoneally, a temporary resumption of gastric secretion occurred after, as well as before, section of all extrinsic nerves to the stomach. The author, as the result of these observations, concluded that the normal gastric secretion depends in part upon an internal secretion of the salivary glands.

In view of the importance both of the results and of the conclusions presented in this communication, any attempt at confirmation of them would seem worthy of brief notice, An opportunity to make this attempt was given us through the kindness of Dr. Cushing who furnished us with two dogs with simple gastric fistulæ.

It was therefore decided to make a few experiments with the idea of testing directly whether or not extracts of the salivary glands are capable of stimulating a flow of gastric juice, If Hem-meter's main contention be correct, it would be supposed that the gastric hormon obtained by extracting the salivary glands should produce a decided effect upon the secretion of gastric juice, when introduced directly into the blood of a living animal, It is to be noted that in our experiments extracts were made only of the submaxillary gland, and that these extracts were injected intravenously only into normal animals, not into animals with the salivary glands removed.