COLLOIDS 103 



formed to crystalloids in a way different from antigenic 

 colloids. This allows us to approach the question of the 

 digestion of homologous albumin, which with the exception 

 or crystallin (the substance of the lens) can be assimilated 

 without producing the formation of an antibody and without 

 ever giving rise to a state of anaphylactic intolerance. 



But how can we represent this assimilation of homologous 

 albumin? It is impossible to imagine an unbroken albumin 

 penetrating into a cell. Consequently a homologous albu- 

 min must be transformed into free amino-acids just like a 

 heterologous albumin; only this transformation must operate 

 in another way. 



By studying this, after what we know, it seems as if a 

 homologous albumin was directly transformed into free 

 amino-acids in the blood and fluids in the organism without 

 passing through the stage of coagulation or, in other words, 

 as if there were in each organism a substance capable of 

 destroying or of binding the ties by which amino-acids are 

 united in granules and of thus freeing them and making them 

 assimilable. The example of the transformation of a col- 

 loidal arsenobenzene into " novo-arsenobenzene" which is a 

 salt by the fixation of formaldehyde sulphoxalate of sodium 

 to the amino group of dioxydiamino-arsenobenzene permits 

 us to assume that this is the case. 



It is thus very probable that the colloids of foreign albu- 

 mins which are not antigens are transformed to crystalloids 

 in the same way as homologous albumins. This is not sur- 

 prising when we think, as already indicated, of the original 

 unity of every animal species and of the similarity of the 

 elementary composition of all albumins, which differ among 

 themselves much more by the proportions than by the 

 qualities of the chemical parts which compose them. What 

 should differ especially are the ties by which the molecules 

 are bound together into colloidal granules. Whatever are 

 the differences of detail between different albumins and the 

 colloids which compose them, the total of our knowledge 

 of the digestion of non-antigenic and antigenic colloids in 

 the interior of the organism permits us to visualize the 

 mechanism of these two sorts of processes in the following 



