CONCLUSIONS 279 



environmental factors as temperature and sunlight. 

 In all likelihood such environmental agencies affect 

 an organism in manifold ways and it is difficult to 

 subject their effects upon an organism to complete 

 analysis. Nevertheless the writer's experience has 

 convinced him that in part the action of such agencies 

 depends upon their ability to cause the liberation of 

 small quantities of cytost from the exposed cells and 

 thus effect a general stimulation of the body. 



Because of this conviction the writer (Turck, 1899) 

 long ago recommended the introduction of hot water 

 into the colon and stomach as a means of increasing 

 the activity of the body cells in general. This method 

 was introduced before the writer's cytost theory was 

 formulated as clearly as it now is, but the results ob- 

 tained by this method of treatment were in complete 

 harmony with what we should expect on the basis of 

 this theory. Sluggish individuals subjected to such 

 treatment consistently manifest an increased activity 

 following the brief exposure of their gastro-intestinal 

 tube to temperatures considerably higher than that 

 normal to the body. 



Biologists at large are inclined to attribute the re- 

 sponse of an organism to changes in temperature solely 

 to the effects of temperature upon the rate of the 

 chemical reactions taking place within the cells. 

 Within certain limits this view is undoubtedly cor- 

 rect, but when temperatures are attained which cause 

 cellular injury we know from our experiments with 

 burns that considerable quantities of cytost are liber- 

 ated. Such being the case, it does not seem unreason- 

 able to assume that even at temperatures considerably 

 below that necessary to cause rapid cellular disinte- 



