Loewy and Richter were able to cure animals by injecting spermin even in cases of experimental pneumonia, where they had received three or four times the fatal dose of pneumococci. These observers also tried spermin in diphtheria, but here the results were less marked, although in some cases where the exact fatal dose was given, a cure was effected. According to Professor Poehl[85] the increase of alkalinity of the blood through spermin, explains its action to increase immunity against infection. Sajous also urges that immunity is closely related with alkalinity. Footnote 85: Poehl: Organotherapie, vol. i, St. Petersburg, 1905. It is interesting to observe that spermin has also given good results in intoxication through leucomaïnes, which play a great rôle in auto-intoxications in the body. This applies to neurin and cholin, as noted by Professor Prince Tarchanow, and Dr. Poehl. We have already mentioned that the thyroid protects us against various poisons, such as chloroform, and it is of interest to note that the testicles may also have a similar action; for, as Tarchanow has shown in frogs, and also dogs, after injection of spermin, these animals were better able to resist chloroform narcosis, and could also withstand a greater dose of it. Weljaminoff found the same also in man. Krüger found that this applied also to ether narcosis. The liver, as we shall show later in a separate chapter, also antagonizes intoxication. Another organ in close relation to the ductless glands—especially in infants—the thymus, must also be considered in the same way as the spleen as taking an important part in our protection against infections. As well known, the spleen is a foremost organ for the production of protective substances, the frequent swelling of the spleen in infectious diseases shows its co-operation in the defense of the body (see also Chapter X). Respecting the thymus, it has been shown by Brieger, Kitasato, and Wassermann, that cultures of cholera bacilli lose their toxic action in extracts of the thymus. There can be no doubt whatever, from the foregoing, that our immunity against infections and intoxications depends on the intact condition of the ductless glands, the great importance of which, as defensive organs, has been demonstrated and explained by Professor Sajous in 1902.[86] As he says: “The overactivity of the adrenal system is the inciting factor of leucocytosis, and, therefore, of phagocytosis;” and later in the second volume: “that the adrenal system, composed of the pituitary body, the adrenals, and the thyroid apparatus, constitutes the immunizing mechanism of the body.” Footnote 86: Sajous: “Internal Secretions,” vol. i, p. 624, 1903 (see also vol. ii, p. 13, 1907).