70 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



but doubly so from the practical standpoint of the physician ad- 

 ministering proteins therapeutically. There remains little doubt 

 that the red corpuscles are an essential part of the mechanism 

 through which intruding proteins are ultimately reduced to innoc- 

 uous amino-acids. 



It becomes necessary, then, to watch the red corpuscles no less 

 than the white ones as an aid to the interpretation of the patient's 

 progress. Not merely their numbers, but their qualitative condi- 

 tions should be considered the presence of normoblasts, megalo- 

 blasts, poikailocytes, crenated and friable cells, and the like should 

 be closely observed, as giving clues to the regulation of dosage, 

 a change of frequency of administration, or a modification of the 

 type of proteal employed. 



The fact that the proteals produce rapid and significant modi- 

 fications in the number and character of the red cells has been 

 too frequently observed to be matter of doubt. 



The subject has obvious importance, from the standpoint of 

 the practical physician, as will appear when we take up the ques- 

 tion of the therapeutic protein response in later chapters. 



THE RED CORPUSCLE AS MASTER IMMUNIZER 



But where, it will naturally be asked, is the point of contact 

 between this scheme of polypeptid digestion and the develop- 

 ment of antitoxins? 



The answer is this: The bacterial toxins that evoke the re- 

 sponsive antitoxins are products of protoplasmic activities ; and 

 they are known to be comparatively simple in chemical composi- 

 tion, their molecules being in all probability of the same order of 

 complexity as the molecules of polypeptids. It is a fair presump- 

 tion that the bodily enzymes proved to act on the polypeptids 

 are the ones that act also on these allied bacterial toxins. 



If the inference is justified, the sources of the antitoxins are 

 clearly revealed : They are the cells of the entire body, each type 

 having a selective action of its own; and, in all probability, the 

 red blood corpuscles being the ones that have the most general 

 and the most comprehensive activities in this connection. 



Now it is obvious that so bold an assumption as this requires 

 all the support that can be found for it in analogical reasoning. 

 Fortunately there are several lines of such reasoning that supply 

 confirmatory evidence. 



Thus, bearing in mind the nitrogenous character of the waste 

 products of protoplasmic action in the animal organism (for 

 example urea, with the formula CH 4 N 2 ), we are justified in 

 assuming that the toxic principles given out by the virulent bac- 

 teria are not altogether dissimilar nitrogenous compounds. This 



