CHAPTER VIII 

 " PATHOLOGIA PHYSIOLOGIAM ILLUSTRAT " 



IN a very interesting article on The Natural History of Tumours, 

 in Science Progress, April, 1916, Dr. C. Mansell Moullin, M.A., 

 places before us the following considerations : 



Division of labour means that every part of the body has to undertake 

 a particular kind of work ; particular work entails a particular chemical 

 reaction. The more thoroughly the work is done the more completely does 

 this special reaction predominate over all the others at that particular 

 spot. This, continued in the same group of cells for generation after 

 generation, of necessity involves progressive modification of chemical 

 constitution and of structure or in other words development. (Italics 

 mine.) 



This socio-chemical account of development is to help us to 

 understand how, through some chemical disturbance in the 

 system, a tumour may be formed. In my opinion, however, 

 chief stress needs to be laid upon the dependence of the chemical 

 factor upon " work," which is of much greater significance than 

 this otherwise suggestive passage would lead many to suppose. 

 Equal stress must be laid upon the concomitant factor of 

 " division of labour." Neither factor can be casually treated 

 or dissociated from its wider economic and sociological implica- 

 tions. Chemical force, I insist, is engendered in the body by 

 the mutual work of the parts, and this, and chemical evolution 

 rally, depends mainly upon the " alchemy " of Symbiosis, 

 a beautiful illustration of which we saw in the case of the lichen. 

 \\V emphasised there, what is again becoming apparent here, 

 that without the right kind of Bio-chemistry no lasting " partner- 

 ship ' is possible, and that this requires above all the right 

 kind of " work " on the part of the organism. We found that 

 Symbiosis represented a veritable " Madonna delle Salute," and 

 we must recognise it also as the presiding principle of bio-chemistry, 

 if we wish to get at the foundation of the organism's viability 

 and resistance to disease. Although in Dr. Mansell Moullin's 

 outline of progressive modification of chemical constitution we 

 get references to " a particular kind of work," to " thoroughness 

 of work," to " permanence of work," yet the connotation of 



153 



