54 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



face of the mucous membrane offers a possible ex- 

 planation of these changes." (Turck, 1895.) When 

 cultures of microorganisms obtained from patients' 

 stomachs were introduced into the stomachs of normal 

 dogs, the microorganisms rapidly disappeared. This 

 result indicates that the bacteria alone were incapable 

 of causing the degenerative changes observed in the 

 stomach, and that the real cause of the alterations 

 in the stomach cells was the liberation of cellular tox- 

 ins as a result of cellular autolysis, primarily caused 

 by the carcinoma. 



In agreement with this it was found that if prior to 

 the introduction of the bacteria the animal's stomach 

 was daily swabbed with tannic acid for a week, the 

 organisms grew rapidly and the animal showed loss 

 of appetite, refused food and grew thin. Apparently 

 the tannic acid had in a fashion similar to that of 

 carcinoma so altered the gastric mucosa that the 

 microorganisms could easily multiply. 



Shortly after these experiments, other caustic irri- 

 tants, such as mustard, were applied to the gastric 

 mucosa, whereby a similar result was obtained, the 

 sticky exudate resulting from the action of the irri- 

 tant forming an excellent culture medium for the 

 rapid proliferation of bacteria. (Turck, 1902.) 

 Furthermore the histological picture of the stomach 

 tissues in cases of carcinoma was found to be closely 

 akin to that obtained by the prolonged action of mus- 

 tard emulsions on the gastric mucosa. 



As a result of his observations of toxemias in pa- 

 tients suffering from carcinoma, alcohol poisoning and 

 various gastric disturbances, the writer came to the 

 conclusion that cell necrosis played an important role 



