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stances, but, moreover it has been shown by Gautier that certain 

 alkaloids which he terms leucomaines, having poisonous properties, 

 are formed within the living organism and independently of the 

 action of bacteria — waste or effete debris — by the accumulation of 

 which in the system the vital processes are arrested. As examples 

 of these he gives betain, guanin, xanthin, kreatinin &c. The 

 accumulation of these substances in the system is prevented 

 either by their destruction by oxidation, or by their elimi- 

 nation through the agency of the kidneys and liver. That 

 products are formed in the living body which, if not eliminated, 

 produce poisonous effects is well shown in cases, for example, 

 of uraemia, gout or diabetes. The majority of observers are of 

 opinion that uraemia is not solely due to the effect of an excess of 

 urea or of ammonium carbonate in the blood, but to the poisonous 

 action, in addition, of such substances as kreatin, kreatinin and 

 other extractives or waste materials which have accumulated in 

 the system from defective excretion by the kidneys. In gout we 

 have uric acid exerting its poisonous effects on the nervous centres, 

 and modifying the nutrition of parts of the body. In diabetes 

 we have not only in some cases the formation of glucose taking 

 place in the system, even when saccharine and starchy foods are 

 withheld, but we have also evidence of some abnormal molecular 

 change in the constitution of the tissues, as shown by the marked 

 tendency to carbuncle and to tuberculosis of the lungs. As the 

 disease advances we have symptoms of drowsiness showing them- 

 selves, the result of some abnormal product in the blood acting on 

 the nervous system ; later on acetone appears in the urine, and in 

 general, not long after this stage has been reached death takes place. 

 In the Croonian lectures for 1886 I endeavoured to show that there 

 were grounds for regarding living albuminous compounds as made 



