64 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



ANTITOXINS AND NEW CHEMICAL PROBLEMS 



There are certain types of these antidotal chemicals, however, 

 to which we have hitherto given scant attention. These are the 

 so-called antitoxins which are developed in the blood not neces- 

 sarily because of the presence of proteid bodies, but in response 

 to toxins that are themselves the product of protoplasmic activ- 

 ity. No organism can grow and develop without giving out waste 

 products that are poisonous to living protoplasm ; and the bac- 

 terium is no exception to the rule. So when it finds access to 

 the human system, it necessarily vitiates that system with its 

 waste products. 



We ordinarily think of these as toxic properties that are put 

 out by the bacteria with the express design of injuring the human 

 body. But such a view is altogether anthropomorphic and mis- 

 taken. The so-called toxins are merely either (1) waste prod- 

 ucts, or (2) enzymes put forth by the bacteria to aid its own 

 digestive processes. But they may serve as virulent poisons to 

 the tissues of their host nevertheless which is highly unfor- 

 tunate for the bacteria themselves, since death of their host will 

 in many cases mean death for them also. 



Of course, the bacteria that are being digested by the leuco- 

 cyte give out such toxic principles, and it is necessary in over- 

 coming them to neutralize these toxins as well as to proteolize 

 the body of the bacterium itself. In this case, we may suppose, 

 the leucocyte adds antitoxins to its list of responsive enzymes, 

 along with the antibodies directly aimed against the proteid bodies 

 of the enemy. It is possible that opsonin is such an antitoxin. 



But there are also cases in which the bacteria only lodge on 

 some surface of the body say the throat and use the vascular 

 channels as a sort of sewer into which to discharge their waste 

 products. The local injury may be very slight, the entire danger 

 to the organism resulting from the presence of the excretory 

 toxins, not to protein itself of any type. The colonization of the 

 diphtheria bacillus furnishes a typical illustration in point. 



In such a case, as is well known, the body may be able to 

 produce chemicals that neutralize the toxins, thus saving the life 

 of the human organism. Moreover, these chemicals may be pro- 

 duced in such excess that the blood becomes more or less satu- 

 rated with them, giving the organism immunity to similar attacks 

 in the future, at least for a time. These neutralizing chemicals 

 are known as antitoxins. They are not necessarily poisonous 

 to the bacteria the toxin of which led to their development. The 

 diphtheria bacillus, for example, will grow and thrive in a me- 

 dium containing large quantities of diphtheria antitoxin. 



Here, then, is a type of antibody that has not been developed 



