CHAPTER IX. 

 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



THE collection of studies on the evolution and nature of 

 pathologic states which we have just analyzed, especially 

 the phenomena of surcharge or of least saturation which are 

 found in mixtures of antibodies and antigens; the recent 

 researches of physiology, more particularly those of Willcock 

 and Hopkins, 1 and of Osborn and Mendel 2 on the importance 

 of certain amino-acids (tryptophane and lysin) in the nutri- 

 tion, growth and reproduction of higher animals as well as 

 the quite recent work of Van Slyke. 3 The present significance 

 of the amino-acids in physiology and pathology shows that 

 the amino-acids pass from the intestines into the blood with- 

 out undergoing any transformation and at least in part are 

 absorbed directly by the tissues. 



These researches lead us to consider the organism from 

 the point of view of its physicochemical composition as a 

 total composed of colloidal "micelles," formed by the union of 

 a larger or smaller number of homo- or heterogeneous amino- 

 acids held together by certain chemical affinities. By reason 

 of surface tension, the molecules are more dense at the peri- 

 phery than at the center so that the peripheral layer acts 

 like a dialyzing membrane. 



A " micelle" thus constituted can fix salts by chemical 

 affinities of its molecules and can absorb them by osmosis 

 and can exchange salts as well as water with the exterior. It 

 can also by the same affinities fix itself to other units and 

 form much larger voluminous granules. It is thus not the 

 molecule but the colloidal "micelle" which is the chemically 



1 The importance of Individual Amino-acids in Metabolism, Jour, of 

 Physiol., December, 1896, p. 8. 



2 The Role of Different Proteins in Nutrition and Growth. 

 Arch. Int. Med., 1917, xix, 56. 



