88 SIGNIFICANCE AND ORIGIN OF (DEFENSIVE) FERMENTS 



substances from the outside and digest them, must 

 now be completed by the observation, that ferments 

 can be given off to the exterior, and that therefore 

 digestion may be accomplished outside the cell. We 

 would like for the present to leave the question open, 

 whether any importance can be ascribed, in this con- 

 nection, to the white blood corpuscles generally, or to 

 any special forms of these. We presume that the red 

 blood corpuscles as well, and very likely also the blood 

 platelets, play an important part in these processes. 

 The presence of ferments in these cells must not, it 

 is true, be unconditionallv connected with the forma- 



./ 



tion of defensive ferments, because it is clear that 

 these cell elements must have means of reducing 

 their nutriment to simpler molecules, and construct- 

 ing their own bodies. In any case, it is extra- 

 ordinary that, in these kinds of cells, there are 

 such active ferments present, and in such large quan- 

 tities. According to our experiments, the splitting 

 processes in these cells take place much quicker than 

 in the other cells of the body. It is certain that the 

 red blood corpuscles have, besides the function of 

 transporting the oxygen, other duties to fulfil in the 

 'economy of the organism. We further consider it 

 quite possible that the same cells, which give off 

 insufficiently harmonized products to the blood, also 

 supply the ferments which are able to complete the 

 decomposition in the circulation. 



