106 THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF LIFE 



Chemical actions between two colloid bodies take place 

 for the most part indirectly, by a first colloid battle ; and 

 its results are realized in a definitive colloid equilibrium 

 and henceforward direct the chemical reactions attached 

 to such an equilibrium of the colloids. Serumtherapy 

 (and nearly all pathology) consists in phenomena of colloid 

 struggles. 



Two facts chosen among a thousand others prove the im- 

 portance of colloid phenomena with relation to purely 

 chemical reactions in the field of biology. 



1. If you inject into animals increasing doses of the 

 soluble alkaloid morphine, you produce in the animals the 

 habit of the poison ; but the serum of morphinized animals 

 does not carry with it in vitro any anti-morphine property. 

 The morphine being really dissolved, there was at first 

 no colloid equilibrium between it and the living being. 

 The phenomenon of habit must have been produced only 

 in the midst of the tissues ; probably it was a directly chemical 

 phenomenon. The explanation of this particular case will 

 occupy us again. 



2. Two living beings, differing greatly in species and 

 consequently having very different chemical structures, 

 may nevertheless be in colloid equilibrium. The serum 

 resulting from the function (Mammal x Serpent's venom) 

 may be utilized against tetanic toxin. 



Facts of the same order explain why the hedgehog is 

 refractory to the bite of vipers, and so on. 



The Division of Labour 



The language we have been using authorizes us in speak- 

 ing of the division of labour, even with the simplest living 

 beings like bacteria or yeasts. Synthetically, we have 



