OUTLOOK. 675 



of the crystalline lens and of the iris have unquestionably quite different 

 construction corresponding to their different functions. Certainly their 

 metabolism is different. 



Thus when we find that from one tissue another of entirely different 

 characteristics may be formed, with a quite different function, we can- 

 not help asking whether pathological new formations do not arise from 

 similar processes. Certainly the cells of the newly-formed crystalline lens 

 of the Triton renew themselves and form cells of the same kind, and show 

 hardly any tendency to form the pigment which is required by the cells in 

 the iris. Similarly it is possible that a body-cell may retain its individual 

 nature only with difficulty if for any reason its chemical nature and func- 

 tion become seriously altered, and the progeny of such a cell will possess 

 the characteristics of the mother-cell so that gradually a whole cell-complex 

 will develop which is of a nature foreign to the entire organism and to its 

 metabolism, and in fact the metabolic end-products of this new cell-com- 

 plex may exert a disturbing influence upon the metabolism of the remain- 

 ing cells of the body. 



Apparently there is a connection between these cells and the mother 

 soil we refer especially to sarcoma and carcinoma for it has been 

 frequently doubted whether such cells can be successfully transmitted to 

 organisms of a different species. We are, in making these suggestions, 

 very far from explaining the formation of these peculiar, atypical 

 tissues. We only wish to bring forth the fact that with the further 

 development of our physiological-chemical knowledge new tasks will be 

 set, and that even problems of purely morphological investigations will, 

 in the course of time, become closely allied to those of physiological 

 chemistry. If it is once found possible to compare the metabolism of the 

 cells of a cancer, or other malignant growth, with normal cells, we may 

 certainly expect to obtain a more accurate insight into the nature of such 

 mysterious processes. 



Taking into consideration all that we know concerning metabolism, 

 and what we have deduced indirectly, it does not appear to us impossible 

 that, among the more complicated processes, here and there a link in the 

 chain of separate processes may be missing, or react in a faulty manner, 

 thus giving rise to degenerations which eventually may be inherited, or at 

 least there may be indications of the transmission to several members of a 

 family. We would recall certain anomalies, 1 such as cystinuria, alcap- 

 tonuria, and albinoism, and finally familiar types of degenerations in the 

 nervous system. Gout and diabetes may also be caused by disturbances 

 in some phase of the functions of cell-metabolism which are partly 

 inherited and partly acquired. Although we may imagine that, for 

 example, an anomaly in the composition of the body-albumin is inherited 



' Cf. A. E. Garrod: Pfliiger's Arch. 97, 410 (1903). 



