IO2 SPECIFICITY OF DEFENSIVE FERMENTS 



Much weightier still, at first sight, is the following 

 objection. In the dialysation process we make use 

 of coagulated albumens, when looking for defensive 

 ferments. In the optical method peptones are used 

 which are produced from these. Is there not a con- 

 tradiction between our methods of research, and the 

 ideas developed above with respect to the cause of 

 the origin of the defensive ferments ? If we surmise 

 that the defensive ferments serve the purpose of de- 

 composing disharmonious substances, built up from 

 numerous units, into their single units, then we 

 must further agree that ferments are present which 

 can carry on the decomposition at least so far, that 

 the specific characteristics of the cells are entirely 

 destroyed. Therefore we ought to expect that, where 

 proteins are decomposed by defensive ferments, pep- 

 tones will also be destroyed provided we take, as 

 substrates, those which correspond with the normal 

 fermentative reduction stages of the original material. 

 If, then, we agree that a substance that is out of 

 harmony with the plasma always has an albuminous 

 character, i.e., that the defensive ferments commence 

 their decomposition at this stage, then there is 

 no difficulty in imaefinino- that the dialvsation pro- 



j O O - 



cess and the optical method lead to similar results. 

 In the first case we allow the defensive ferment to 

 commence the decomposition at the albuminous stage, 

 and establish the appearance of the crystalloidal, dif- 



