206 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE 



the body, the work of which cannot even 

 temporarily be interfered with, namely, the 

 heart muscle, and certain important nerve- 

 centres controlling respiration and heart-beat. 

 As the poison from the diphtheria organisms 

 locks into the labile oscillating colloid aggre- 

 gates of these rhythmically working cells, 

 their character alters. 



It is as if a strange key had become jammed 

 in a beautifully constructed lock, so that its 

 own key could no longer shoot the bolt of the 

 lock to and fro. When the amount of poison 

 absorbed passes a certain limit, the heart 

 becomes irregular or the respiration troubled, 

 and soon there too often happens the sudden 

 death from heart collapse, or, if that be 

 prevented, the serious paralyses of other 

 nerve centres seen later in severe cases of the 

 disease. 



Strange to say, it is just the violently 

 poisonous nature of the toxin of diphtheria 

 which has enabled modern biological science 

 to supply a remarkable bio-chemical specific 

 for its treatment, such as cannot be produced 

 for a disease with a toxin of low poisonous 

 power, as, for example, tuberculosis. The 

 procedure illustrates so well the delicate 

 relationships and balance of the colloids of 

 cells, and the natural mode of limitation of 



