162 PROTEIN POISONS 



1. All the proteins with which we have worked contain 

 a poisonous group, and the probabilities are that this is 

 true of all proteins, be they bacterial, vegetable, or animal. 



2. Proteins may be split into poisonous and non-poisonous 

 groups, either artificially in the retort or in the animal 

 body. 



3. The splitting up of the protein in the animal body is 

 due to a proteolytic ferment which is the product of certain 

 cells. 



4. This ferment is specific for the protein which calls it 

 into existence. 



5. Our conception of the origin and nature of these specific 

 ferments is as follows: The cell is made up of molecules; 

 the molecules consist of atoms, and the atoms of electrons. 

 The molecule may be likened to the universe, composed 

 of suns, planets, and satellites. These are in harmonious 

 and rhythmic motion. The molecule of the foreign protein 

 introduced into the body has a structure similar to that 

 of the cell molecule, and when one is brought within the 

 attractive range of the other, one or the other, or both, 

 must undergo certain disturbances. Suppose that an 

 atomic group is split off from the animal cell and enters 

 the attraction sphere of the molecule of the foreign protein, 

 then the harmonious arrangement of the atoms and elec- 

 trons of the latter will be affected; indeed, the molecule may 

 be disrupted as completely as it is in the retort under the 

 influence of dilute alkali. 



Our residues evidently have the same effect on the cells 

 of the body that the proteins from which they come do, 

 and in this way we may explain the specific action of the 

 residues. The special group broken off from the cell mole- 

 cule depends upon the composition of the protein which 

 comes within its attractive sphere, and it seems that our 

 residues contain that portion of the molecule of the foreign 

 protein which possesses this property of bringing into 

 existence, or rather of activating, its own specific ferment. 

 The ferment is, according to our conception, a portion of 

 the animal cell, an atomic group within the cell molecule, 



