THE POISON OF THE MURRY 



instead of being localized, and the teeth have no tubes 

 to facilitate the inoculation. Furthermore, instead of 

 being concerned with the mouth alone, so that, as in 

 the murry, there must be a bite for the damage to 

 be done, the venomous quality is distributed all over 

 the surface of the body, is exercised by means of 

 organs on the surface — spines or stings — and only 

 comes into operation in a passive way. Moreover, we 

 find that these toxic substances which provide the 

 venom with its painful properties are related to other 

 substances of the same order, held in solution in the 

 blood of a large number of animals which have no 

 inoculatory organs, yet do possess a sort of secret, 

 inner venomous property, which is not made manifest 

 by anything external. So the poisonous creatures can 

 no longer be put into a category by themselves: they 

 are like the rest, and differ from them only by their 

 capacity to make use of general properties in an 

 additional, complementary manner, which is governed 

 by the possibilities of their construction. When we 

 consider animals still more simply organized, the jelly- 

 fish and the sea-anemone, we are confirmed in this 

 idea, since we find these same properties distributed 

 over the fundamental elements of the tissues. 



What, then, are these active substances which the 

 body produces in infinitesimal quantities, yet which, 

 despite the degree of their dilution, are so vigorous in 

 action ? Experimental medicine here works hand in 

 hand with biology. The means of investigation at its 

 disposal enable it to penetrate even further into the 

 knowledge of things, for it defines them more clearly 

 on the basis of the results made manifest in illness. 



The maintenance of the living creature in its unit- 

 ary simplicity has an astounding complexity. The 

 tissues, working in the midst of the liquids with which 

 they are bathed, modify them according to the needs 

 of the function they have to perform. Their vital 

 action, deep down within them, carries all of them along 



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