244 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



so-called active state (0 3 ), have become antiquated owing to 

 the discoveries of the last few years. It was the mistake 

 of all former theories of oxidation to look upon respiration 

 as a process in which the organism plays an almost passive 

 role. Either some compounds of the organism were regarded 

 as attracting the oxygen of the medium by their own 

 affinity, or oxygen itself was regarded as attracting parts 

 of the organism. Modern biology has shown that oxidation 

 is an active function on the part of the organism for the 

 benefit of the whole. Wherever it is necessary either to 

 destroy noxious compounds or to gain energetical potentials, 

 the organism forms catalysers or calls into activity so-called 

 zymogens, which set up oxidation that would otherwise 

 not have taken place. 1 The fuel consumed for the supply 

 of energy consists generally of those constituents that are 

 derived from the food though hardly without some inter- 

 mediate change first taking place but it also may be more 

 important constituents of the tissues themselves, as we 

 have learnt in our analysis of the metabolism of fasting. 

 Oxidation as a mere process of anti-poisoning attacks all the 

 so-called by-products of metabolism in general. 



Thus the most general result gained by modern biological 

 research is the knowledge that oxidation is like all the 

 other processes of metabolism ; that it is as regulable and 

 as limited in its regulability as they ; that it only seems 

 to be more important on account of its universal presence 

 in all forms of life. 



1 Our description is a little schematic : former theories of respiration 

 have made a difference between so-called "primary" or fundamental oxida- 

 tion, which is necessary for life in general, and "secondary" oxidation, 

 subsidiary to special functions. It is highly probable that this difference 

 will disappear in the light of modern research, but the matter has not vet 

 been fully decided. 



