86 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



Proteomorphic theory supplies a clear and definite answer, con- 

 ditioned on the activities of the white and red blood corpuscles 

 in the regular processes of assimilation, as already outlined. It 

 assumes that the white blood corpuscle began the proteolysis of 

 the first dose of foreign protein, and that the red blood corpuscle 

 completed it, quite as before ; but that the specific enzymes of 

 the red corpuscle adapted for dealing with that particular protein 

 were present in very limited quantities in the blood, and suscep- 

 tible of being reformed but slowly by the corpuscle, precisely be- 

 cause the organism was little subject to that particular invasion. 

 Meantime, however, the more generalized enzymes of the leuco- 

 cyte, known to be largely non-specific in action, were able to 

 begin hydrolysis of the second dose of foreign protein when it 

 appeared, reducing it to the polypeptid stage at which the red 

 corpuscle should take it in hand. But these corpuscles, ex- 

 hausted at the moment of the specific ferment (from dealing 

 with the first dose) are, for the time being, helpless. They will 

 gradually replace the lost enzymes, of course; but as yet they 

 have not had time to do so, at least in adequate quantity, so the 

 foreign polypeptids pass on to the tissues, and some of them are 

 seized on by the brain cells with disastrous results. 



The difficulty arises, it will appear, from the fact that the 

 enzyme of the white corpuscle, which begins hydrolysis, is able 

 to attack a great variety of proteins; whereas the enzymes to 

 complete the hydrolysis of the 'resulting polypeptids must be 

 made, in the case of any specific protein, in a particular depart- 

 ment of the red corpuscles' laboratory. 



To meet this necessity, the red corpuscle has developed a very 

 elaborate type of protein, each molecule of its hemoglobin being 

 composed of several thousand atoms; and under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances it is able to manage all the diverse materials that 

 are turned over to it by the leucocyte. 



But the circumstances under which anaphylaxis occurs are 

 not ordinary. It is only a protein of unusual type, or a protein 

 that comes in large quantities repeatedly, that can induce the 

 condition, through disarranging the harmonious working of the 

 proteolytic apparatus; except, indeed, that a single large dose of 

 a foreign protein may, under exceptional conditions, be retained 

 in the system for a considerable period (instead of being excreted 

 rather promptly through the kidneys as is usual), in which case, 

 obviously, there may be opportunity for the white corpuscle to 

 begin proteolysis of larger quantities than the red corpuscles can 

 handle. 



In the case of the human subject, as just suggested, anaphylaxis 

 may be due to the faulty digestion of the ordinary food pro- 

 teids, under conditions that lead to the absorption of an excep- 



