2 o8 ELIMINA TION 



view is justifiable at all, it can only be on the ground 

 that the " poisons" of small-pox and scarlatina are 

 allied to the soluble excrementitious substances, which 

 it is really the business of the secreting organs to 

 " eliminate" from the blood. Recent researches here 

 recorded, so far from favouring this view, lead us to 

 a different conclusion. On the one hand, many things 

 which were supposed to exist preformed in the blood, 

 and to be " eliminated " by the agency of cells, are 

 actually formed by the cells, and did not pre-exist in 

 the blood ; and, on the other hand, we have been led 

 to the inference that the "contagious poisons" are 

 totally distinct from excrementitious matters, that 

 they are u living," and quite distinct in their nature 

 from anything that can, as far as is known, be " elimi- 

 nated." The term " eliminate" is therefore wholly in- 

 appropriate. If an epithelial cell can attract towards 

 it, and then get rid of, any kind of living matter, it is 

 an operation concerning which nothing whatever is 

 known. It would not be more incorrect to talk of the 

 "elimination" of ova or spermatozoa than it w r ould 

 be to speak of the elimination of living pus corpuscles 

 or disease germs. 



Although it has been asserted that pus corpuscles 

 pass through epithelial cells, it need scarcely be said 

 that the assertion has never been proved, while many 

 arguments that might be advanced render such an 

 hypothesis untenable. But even if the pus corpuscle 

 did pass into an epithelial cell, it would not be correct 



