" PATHOLOGIA PHYSIOLOGIAM ILLUSTRAT ' 159 



reproduction, and that a reversion to it from an erstwhile sexual 

 form of reproduction, means a Joss of status, closely associated 

 with a loss of symbiotic potential. Nature, however, can ill 

 afford a serious loss of symbiotic potential, which would entail 

 a serious loss of indispensable " high-class labour." Nature, 

 therefore, abhors perpetual " asexualisation," as she also abhors 

 perpetual in-breeding, and perpetual in-feeding, and above all 

 Parasitism. Though her retributive processes may frequently 

 be veiled from our vision, yet it can be stated pretty generally 

 that in one way or another the transgressors against her "socio 

 logical " laws are ultimately brought to book. 



Though He stands and waits in patience 

 With exactness grinds he all. 



And that all this is true is the most important lesson to be 

 learnt from the Bio-chemistry of tumours, the most valuable 

 morale to be gleaned from the study of pathology. 



Dr. John Beard, who has long defended the view that one form 

 of cancer is due to an "irresponsible" asexual generation or 

 growth occurring during the sexual generation period of the life 

 cycle, has shown that the asexual generations of many animals 

 are rapidly killed and digested by pancreatic ferments (Trypsin 

 and Amylopsin), whereas frequently, on the other hand, the 

 sexual generations are not in the least affected by these enzymes. 

 This points to a biological antagonism between sexual and 

 asexual modes of reproduction, or at any rate it shows the 

 inferiority of the latter because of its frequent more or less patho- 

 genetic, or " sociologically " inferior, origin, which easily renders 

 it a source of danger to biological progress and calls for repressive 

 measures in the protective adaptation of the progressive types. 

 Dr. Beard suggests indeed, that the difference of composition 

 has to do with this biological (" sociological ") antagonism between 



uuous and pathogenic organisms, and he tells us that asexual 

 forms are built up of dextro-proteins, whilst the sexual are built 

 up of laevo-albumins He contends that the " micro-organisms, 

 bacilli, etc., of disease are of necessity composed of compounds 

 which are, stereo-chemically, antitheses of those making up the 

 normal human body and that when they are compared with 

 the pancreatic ferments, the like is true of the ferments by means 

 of which they effect their ends. Only by means of such antithetic 

 or opposite characters of compounds and of ferments produced 



