ORIGIN OF CHRONIC NON-CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 159 



from the direct combination of a foreign substance (poison) 

 with the contents of the cell, but ( from the overproduction 

 of a substance (antibody) which normally is produced by the 

 cell in small quantities only. 



Brieffy : The overburdening of the cells entrusted with the 

 production of antibodies causes the hypertrophy, the lesion 

 and the insufficient functioning of the organ; and, conse- 

 quently, the appearance of chronic disturbances. 



ORIGIN OF CHRONIC NON-CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



The lesions and the pathological states observed in animals 

 intensively immunized or sensitized are caused by conditions 

 which in nature occur only very rarely. They are sometimes 

 observed in chronic infectious diseases of slow and very long 

 evolution, particularly in tuberculosis, syphilis, malaria, the 

 trypanosomiases, and it is impossible in these cases not to 

 correlate the causes and results of the succession of crises, 

 alternating with more or less long abatements in the chronic 

 infections, on the one hand, with the repeated injections of 

 living or dead antigens, on the other. 



Preventive vaccinations as practised on man and domestic 

 animals, usually do not lead to unpleasant consequences, 

 because the doses are small and the injections not numerous. 

 The immunity-anaphylaxis acquired by vaccinations is, 

 however, in most cases of short duration. 



Acute infectious diseases usually leave the recovered 

 organism with a lasting immunity-anaphylaxis; but it has so 

 far been impossible to establish with accuracy the relations 

 which may exist, for instance, between an eruptive or typhoid 

 fever contracted during childhood, with a dermatosis or 

 arthralgia appearing in mature age. It is hardly possible to 

 acquire accurate knowledge in these cases by experiment, 

 because in order for the experiment to correspond exactly 

 to any particular question, it would be necessary to consider 

 entirely new and perfect organisms, which in all probability 

 do not exist. On account of heredity and of the conditions 

 of individual evolution each organism finds itself in a different 



