ELIMINA TION. 



are "eliminated" from the infected organism, it is 

 desirable to consider the nature of the process called 

 "elimination" as it occurs in health and disease. 



On Elimination. The idea that poisons of all kinds 

 are eliminated by a natural process, and that the 

 operation is effected through the agency of the cells 

 of certain tissues and organs, has of late years taken 

 so firm a hold upon the mind as to be regarded 

 by many writers as a well-established pathological 

 fact. If, however, the view which is entertained be 

 carefully analysed, and the supposed phenomena 

 examined by the light of modern investigation, little 

 indeed will, I think, be found to justify the doctrine 

 that cells take an active part in removing poisons 

 from the blood, or that it is part of their duty to 

 " eliminate " such deleterious little particles as disease- 

 germs which have gained an entrance. Indeed if this 

 were part of the work of these cells, we could not 

 help acknowledging that they performed their duties 

 most imperfectly, and failed more often than they 

 succeeded in separating from the blood the poison 

 which had entered. And it would certainly appear 

 very strange that the cells did not " eliminate " the 

 small amount of poison soon after it had entered, 

 instead of remaining perfectly passive until it had 

 accumulated to an enormous extent, jeopardized the 

 life of the patient and seriously impaired the action 

 of the very apparatus that was to take an active part 

 in expelling it from the body. So far from the cells 



P 2 



