60 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



observed to be non-toxic is in itself proof positive that the organ- 

 ism is equipped with an immunizing mechanism adapted to deal 

 with the specific minor combinations of atoms that make up the 

 side-chain components of its protein molecules. 



Nor does this apply exclusively to the proteins that we com- 

 monly think of as foods. It has equal application to the micro- 

 scopic proteid organisms. Thus bacteria are relatively harmless 

 if they are so abundant that the organisms of our ancestors have 

 dealt with them generation after generation ; contrariwise, they 

 are classed as toxic if they are comparatively rare, so that the 

 race has not developed a defensive mechanism against them. 

 Note, by way of illustration, that measles is a mild disease in 

 Europe and America, but becomes a very virulent one in Japan. 

 The presumption is that the germ of measles did not come in 

 contact with the ancestors of our race until a period subsequent 

 to that in which the Japanese stock had branched from the 

 western stock. 



There is abundant evidence to show that any inherent habit 

 of action once fixed on a living organism is a perpetual endow- 

 ment, to be transmitted from one generation to another in per- 

 petuity (subject, in case of recently acquired characters, to elim- 

 ination in a certain proportion of the progeny through Mundelian 

 inheritance). So we may safely assume that when an organism 

 has learned to deal with any given protein in such a way as to 

 render it innocuous, the descendants of that organism will retain 

 the capacity to repeat the process indefinitely. It follows that 

 every higher organism can deal effectively under proper condi- 

 tions and in restricted quantities with all the different types of 

 proteins that have come in regular contact with its ancestors to 

 the remotest generations. 



Thus is explained the familiar fact that each higher organism 

 can find nourishment in a great variety of foods ; coupled with 

 the fact that the blood plasma of the organism normally con- 

 tains the antidotes for a considerable number of bacterial poisons. 



Of course this higher organism has become a very complex 

 mechanism, with many members, each specialized to perform a 

 particular function. As regards this function of combating the 

 noxious forces of the environment, the digestive system is pre- 

 eminent. But this system, in the broad view, is not so much 

 an inherent part of the organism, as an outer wall of defense so 

 placed as to make sure that in general no unmodified proteins shall 

 find their way through the mucous membrane fortifications. But 

 the organism cannot depend absolutely on this defensive mech- 

 anism, as we have just seen ; so it is necessary to have other 

 defenders on guard inside the walls. And it seems on its face 

 a plausible suggestion that the cell which retains most of the 



