ANTI-ANAPHYLACTIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES 163 



Then again, we must not lose sight of the fact that the 

 intestinal contents are not solely composed of bacteria, that 

 they always contain more or less digested albuminous matter, 

 and that the congested intestinal mucous membrane may 

 allow this matter to pass into the blood. 



We know that any heterologous albuminous substance 

 which, undigested or incompletely digested, that is, in the 

 form of albumose, peptone or polypeptid, has penetrated 

 into the blood, will behave as an antigen, and we know that 

 any ordinary occurrence, even a slight emotion, can make 

 the intestinal mucous membrane permeable to these antigens, 

 as well as to bacterial antigens. 



An anaphylactic state, as well as the disturbances resulting 

 from it, can thus be caused just as well by incompletely 

 digested alimentary substances, as by intestinal bacteria or 

 their secretions; but as it is easy to determine and to prove 

 that the intestinal flora and the digestion of a normal man 

 do not differ from those of a man affected by psoriasis or 

 suffering from emphysema, the conclusion is necessary that 

 the causes of these diseases must be looked for, not in the 

 nature of the bacteria living in the intestine, nor in the nature 

 of the albuminoid substances on which the organism feeds, 

 but solely in the method by which it digests and assimilates 

 both bacteria and albumin. 



It often happens that of several thousand individuals 

 living in the same surroundings and under the same condi- 

 tions, only a few became ill with typhoid fever or cholera, 

 and one wonders why the remainder escape infection : Why 

 horses, rabbits, guinea-pigs, are not infected by the ingestion 

 of the bacilli of these diseases, which are pathogenic for 

 these animals, when injected into the peritoneum or into the 

 blood. 



In the case of man, we may assume a previous spontaneous 

 immunization in certain cases, but in animals, this is very 

 improbable. The only plausible answer to these questions 

 is that the large majority of individuals who escape infection, 

 and all animals who are never spontaneously infected, are 

 refractory to these diseases. 



And why are they refractory? 



