PATHOGENES1S 305 



What with the obvious occasional ill-effects of serum 

 injection, the doubtful effects of others, and our ignorance of 

 the nature of the important changes thereby set up in the 

 blood, we certainly do not seem to be warranted in trusting to 

 such means for the preservation of our most vital symbiotic 

 momenta. It is a case where we should " rather bear those ills 

 we have, than fly to others that we know not of." 



Is not the normal constitution of the blood correlated with 

 a vast number of definite requirements for the protection of 

 the body? The structure of the blood is far from being 

 thoroughly known, and the more it is studied the more complex 

 it becomes. Does it not, therefore, amount to a serious and 

 almost incalculable disturbance of the physiological 

 equilibrium if we interfere in a haphazard manner with the 

 all-important normal composition of the blood? 



Prof. Eichet states his ow T n belief that " the blood being 

 toxic (after injection) it becomes powerless to maintain the life 

 of the nerve-cells." In a similar way, according to my view, 

 perpetual in-feeding causes a pathogenetic abstraction from, 

 and a poisoning of, the blood and undermines the highest 

 nerve-centres which eventually leads to atrophy of the brain. I 

 have already stated that a kind of irregular growth is gradually 

 established as the result of inappropriate food stimulation 

 (such as the antithesis between growth of brain and of the 

 canines in carnivora !), and we can see that without the pro- 

 tection of the digestive process this pathogenetic process must 

 proceed at a much quicker rate. The organism that has to 

 satisfy the exorbitant claims of huge teeth and fangs with a 

 pathogenetic impoverishment of the blood has less pabulum 

 to spare for brain, and it is the same with protoplasm that has 

 to form apotoxin (pathogenetic "alloys"), particularly so as 

 in its manufacture the bio-chemical laboratory of the brain has 

 to be resorted to and to be taxed to the utmost. 



It is in connection with anaphylaxis in man that Prof. 

 Eichet speaks of " serum disease," and he tells us further (as 

 mentioned above): 



