Other poisons have quite the same effect. Now it is clear that the direct influence 

 of parasitism on the organism must be sought in the action of some poisonous sub- 

 stance. Hence it seems certain that what these three causes have in common, namely 

 necrobiose, or the slowly dying of the cells surrounding the dead ones, is the base of 



Fig. i. (Natural size.) Gum producing peachalmond in September whose summit 

 is cut off; the gum from the gum canals is after drying, swollen by moistening 



with cold water. 



gummosis, and that parasitism, where necrobiose lasts as it were endlessly, must be 

 the most powerful instigator of the process. 



That this simple view of the question has not yet taken root in science is proved 

 by the most recent treatise on our subject by M i k o s c h 1 ), illustrated with beautiful 

 anatomical figures. After the publication of Dr. A. Rant and myself of 1905, he 



') Untersuchungen iiber die Entstehung des Kirschgummi. Sitzungsber. d. Kais. Akad. 

 d. Wiss. in Wien. Mathem.-naturw. Klasse. Bd. 115, Abt. i. pag. 912, 1906. 



