200 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



cally on this aspect of the subject. Nevertheless, I think that 

 data are sufficient to enable us to suggest at least a plausible hy- 

 pothesis as to the modus operandi of white cell decrease or modi- 

 fication in direction of the normal under Proteal treatment. A 

 clue to the explanation is to be found, it seems to me, in the com- 

 plementary or compensatory relation that exists between the 

 white and the red corpuscles. All theories aside, it has long 

 been known that when there is sudden reduction in the mass of the 

 blood, through hemorrhage, a rapid leucocytosis supervenes, it 

 being apparently a more facile matter to increase the leucocyte 

 population than to bring the red corpuscles back to normal num- 

 bers. The difference in bulk between the two perhaps explains 

 this more or less adequately, it being recalled that the red cell 

 population is normally from 500 to one thousand times the census 

 of the white corpuscles. It will be recalled, also, that under 

 normal conditions there is a far wider range of variation in the 

 number of white corpuscles than in the red. A normal post- 

 prandial leucocytosis may increase the numbers of white cor- 

 puscles by 50 per cent; and, contrariwise, a corresponding 

 reduction takes place a few hours later. No such oscillation 

 as this occurs under normal conditions in the red cell population. 



If the post-hemorrhagic leucocytosis be accepted as in a sense 

 compensatory, it must be assumed that the leucocytes are able 

 to some extent to perform the work of the red corpuscles. 

 Speaking in terms of the Proteomorphic theory, we may assume 

 that there is no absolutely fixed line of demarcation between the 

 proteolytic activities of the white corpuscles and red. (I shall 

 present below the record of a case of leukaemia, that strikingly 

 emphasizes this view.) The theory assumes that the red cor- 

 puscles are incapable of dealing with the full-sized protein mole- 

 cule, and that the white corpuscles cannot adequately care for 

 the later products of hydrolysis, of the pelypeptid order. But in 

 all probability there are intermediate stages at which the activ- 

 ities of the two sets of corpuscles overlap. It is conceivable, 

 for example, that both the white corpuscles and the red may be 

 able to deal more or less adequately with molecules at the peptone 

 stage, and that the white corpuscles may hand the material over, 

 so to speak, to the red corpuscles at somewhat variant stages of 

 decompounding under different conditions. 



If we assume, as was done in the Proteomorphic theory, that 

 the disruption of the white corpuscle and the consequent libera- 

 tion of its contents takes place as the result of osmotic pressure, 

 and that this pressure is due to the decompounding of the protein 

 molecules within the substance of the leucocytes, it is at least 

 conceivable that the stage of decompounding at which disruption 

 will occur is dependent in a measure on the quantity of protein 



