SPECIFICITY OF DEFENSIVE FERMENTS 



always brutal, and at once produce pathological con- 

 ditions. We cannot imitate this method of supplying 

 a substance in minute quantities, simply because we 

 have no means of controlling the essential mechanism 

 of regulation, owing to our ignorance of its nature. 

 By our injections of disharmonious material 

 we suddenly alter the composition of the blood, 

 and injuriously affect the whole organism. It is, 

 in this respect, most interesting that defensive fer- 

 ments which only decompose cane sugar, can be ob- 

 tained when, for instance, cane sugar is injected in 

 very small quantities. As the quantity of cane sugar 

 is increased then, very often, the blood serum is able 

 to dissociate milk sugar as well. But, if too much of 

 the above kind of sugar be introduced into the blood, 

 then as a rule defensive ferments do not appear at all. 

 Further, it is possible that the substances, which we 

 artificially introduce into the bodv r , are not sufficiently 

 fine in structure to produce specific ferments, specially 

 directed against them. The cell gives off its 

 particular disharmonious substances with their 

 specific features stamped on them, while we, on the 

 contrary, bring into the circulation material that has 

 already been altered. This difference may be illus- 

 trated in the following manner. Suppose, on the one 

 hand, that two persons start to fight each other with 

 two ' specifically ' chosen weapons. Such a fight 

 is premeditated ; the weapons are precise, and the 



