302 ' DESTRUCTION OF MORBID BIOPLASM. 



is unprotected by any external envelope or cellwall, 

 and would, therefore, be acted upon much more readily 

 than the bioplasm of the tissues. In nutrition, the 

 higher bioplasm, taking part in tissue formation, may 

 be nourished, while a lower form, situated close by, 

 may be starved, and even die and disappear. In cer- 

 tain abnormal conditions the very reverse obtains, the 

 higher bioplasm having deteriorated, succumbs, while 

 the lower rapidly increases and accumulates, until the 

 normal tissue and its bioplasm are completely and 

 irreparably destroyed. 



Regarded from this point of view, the discovery of 

 a plan of treatment which shall ensure the destruction 

 of such forms of bioplasm as tubercle and cancer, 

 appears possible. One can conceive that certain sub- 

 stances may be discovered which, if introduced into 

 the blood, either from the stomach or injected into the 

 areolar tissue, may destroy the active growing bio- 

 plasm of tubercle, cancer, and other pathological forms, 

 or cause them to waste and degenerate, without in any 

 way affecting the tissues of the body, or interfering 

 with the general nutritive properties of the constituents 

 of the blood. 



And there are other directions in which we might 

 work in the hope of obtaining similar advanta- 

 geous results. It may be possible to find out the 

 particular materials which morbid bioplasm appro- 

 priates, and expel these from the nutrient fluid, in 

 which case the morbid, rapidly growing, bioplasm 



