THE BIO-CHEMISTRY OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 117 



But the facts already mentioned in connection with the activating 

 power exercised by lecithin on cobra venom and other toxins 

 furnish us with the best clue as to its functions. The assimilation 

 of a poisonous protein which leads to the destruction of the cell 

 with which it becomes united, is believed to be on all fours with 

 the assimilation of a nutritive protein which leads to the growth 

 of a cell, or to its repair after it has undergone the waste which 

 accompanies activity. If this doctrine is accepted, it is quite 

 possible that lecithin may be not only an activator for the 

 assimilation of a toxin, or an amboceptor which anchors the 

 toxin on to the cell it attacks, but in a more general sense it may 

 play a role in the same sort of way in relation to the safe anchorage 

 of nitrogenous substances of food value, which are important for 

 cell life. The latest researches on ferment action have clearly 

 shown that ferments are not present in cells in the active state 

 but as so-called proferments. To produce their effect another — 

 chemically so far unknown — substance is necessary ; and that 

 this substance may be lecithin (or a similar lipoid) is a view that 

 is gaining ground. The beneficial effect, especially on nitro- 

 genous metabolism, of small therapeutic doses of lecithin in cases 

 of malnutrition, which has repeatedly been stated to occur, may 

 perhaps be explained in this way. In the light also of the work 

 previously alluded to, on the antagonistic action of cholesterin 

 and lecithin, the normal function of the former substance may be 

 a protective one ; it is one more of the numerous chemical 

 defences the body possesses against the attacks of various 

 toxins, produced either by bacterial action or by normal meta- 

 bolic processes in the body (auto-toxins). Some results obtained 

 in Salkowski's laboratory by Pribram furnish indications in this 

 direction. It was found that by feeding animals with cholesterin 

 the percentage of this substance in the blood rose, and that the 

 serum possessed a resistance against the haemolytic action of 

 saponin which was eight times greater than in the normal animal. 



If it is at all permissible to draw any general conclusions 

 from this newly acquired knowledge, which is still in a state of 

 evolution, it would seem that a nicely balanced action of the 

 two substances, lecithin and cholesterin, would be of the greatest 

 importance for the maintenance of the normal healthy state of 

 the organism. 



Inosite, although not strictly belonging to the lipoid sub- 

 stances, is included in the third group of Thudichum's classi- 



