MECHANISM OF PROTEIN HYDROLYSIS AND IMMUNIZATION 29 



utterly obscure or but vaguely interpreted, find clear and tangible 

 explanation when viewed in the light of the proteomorphic theory. 



It will be shown that the precise role of the leucocyte on one 

 hand and the side-chain mechanism on the other are inter- 

 preted from a new point of view ; that the red blood corpuscle 

 is conceived to enter into the scheme of immunization as a mas- 

 terful and dominating force, with all-important activities never 

 hitherto ascribed to it; and that, as a whole, the scheme of 

 immunization here presented has if its tenets be accepted a 

 measure of comprehensiveness in the interpretation of the find- 

 ings of physiologist, bacteriologist, and clinical pathologist that 

 could not well be claimed for any theory of immunization here- 

 tofore submitted. More than that, the theory has pointed the 

 way to a new field of therapeutics, already demonstrated to be 

 large and important, the full limitations of which will not be 

 determined for a long time to come the field of Nonspecific 

 Protein Therapy. 



Before going on to the practical therapeutic developments of 

 the idea, it is desirable to present the evidence for the Proteo- 

 morphic theory itself, drawn from various fields of biology and 

 pathology. 



In collating the evidence it will be necessary to summarize the 

 results of experiments and observations gleaned from many dif- 

 ferent sources, some of which must necessarily be familiar to 

 all medical readers, and all of which will perhaps be familiar 

 to a few. This is unavoidable if the evidence in its totality is 

 to be made generally comprehensible. 



It will appear as we proceed that much of this evidence is 

 indirect or circumstantial ; yet in the aggregate, I believe, it 

 establishes a strong presumption in favor of the validity of the 

 theory advanced. And if the theory is accepted, certain very 

 definite and rather important inferences as to practical thera- 

 peutic applications follow as matters of course. The study of 

 the blood corpuscles assumes new interest and importance for 

 the practical therapeutist. The genesis of anaemias of various 

 types, including pernicious anaemia, is more clearly explained 

 than ever before, on the assumption that the destruction of red 

 corpuscles is due to excessive demands put upon them by the 

 surcharging of the blood with protein end products. The differ- 

 ential count of the leucocytes other than the polynuclears becomes 

 for the first time intelligible and susceptible of interpretation. 



Specifically, it would appear that a monocytosis is as char- 

 acteristic and as pathognomonic an evidence of protein intoxi- 

 cation as a polynucleosis is of bacterial infection; and that the 

 artificial stimulation of a large monocytosis (as by hypodermic 

 introduction of foreign proteins) is a therapeutic expedient sus- 



