IOO SPECIFICITY OF .DEFENSIVE FERMENTS 



another, just a trace of some specifically organized 

 substance, and this is at once deprived of its essential 

 properties by means of the opposing defensive 

 ferment. It might be thought that the same cells 

 which give off the disharmonious material would 

 themselves supply the ferments, and transfer their 

 further reduction into the plasma ; but at present there 

 are no proofs for such a suggestion. 



This view may be opposed on the ground, that it 

 is difficult to understand how specifically directed 

 ferments can be distinguished in boiled tissues. 

 Many of the iiner features in the structure of the 

 substrate must surely be obliterated in the pro- 

 cess of boiling. This probably holds only for the 

 physical properties and hardly at all for the chemical. 

 We may boil a substance having a composition 

 A B C D, and another having a structure B C D A, 

 for a long time ; both would still retain their original 

 composition or structure, although their physical 

 properties might undergo alteration. Thus, for 

 instance, their rotation mi^ht alter, and to this extent 



o 



their biological behaviour might be affected. Thus 

 there is nothing against the idea, that the substrate 

 against which the ferment is directed may, in spite 

 of its newly acquired properties, be still liable to 

 attack by the ferment. With a key corresponding to 

 a particular lock we can still unlock the latter, even 

 though it has been badly damaged, provided only 



