368 BACTERIOLOGY. 



out altering the final result. The body-cells 

 which by virtue of their specific and constant 

 qualities convert the nutritive proteid into ac- 

 tive proteid, thus bestowing upon it their own 

 peculiarities which it in turn communicates to 

 the fluids, are the factors of chief importance. 

 Behring's doctrine of humoral pathology, that 

 mysterious doctrine of the all-importance of 

 the body fluids, which virtually ignores the 

 cells, is a dogma vindicated by no sort of satis- 

 factory experiment. The bactericidal active 

 proteid substance that is found in cholera 

 serum is certainly not an anti-substance 

 against the cholera toxin (R. Pfeiffer) ; a truly 

 antitoxic body has not yet been found in the 

 blood after cholera inoculations, in spite of the 

 statements of Behring and Ransom, although 

 the occurrence of such a substance is not im- 

 probable. 1 



The protective serum, as Behring terms it, 

 certainly contains very different sorts of sub- 

 stances. Doubtless elements of the specific 

 parasites enter into the formation of the anti- 

 substances, and among these, perhaps, actual 

 protective substances exist, but along with 

 these, and in greater amount, occur those 

 peculiar, normal active chemical bodies, which 



1 Recent experiments show the existence of a cholera antitoxin. 

 E. O. J. 



