SECTION 22. OBSERVATION. 263 



of an excitant contained in the outer layer of the rice. Addition of this 

 cleaned-off material in small amounts prevents, or relieves, the disease. 

 A similar condition can be produced in pigeons or fowls fed experimentally 

 on polished rice (as the European product with the outer layer removed 

 is called), and can be relieved immediately by small amounts of extracts 

 of the rice polish ings. Infantile scurvy is an example of an infantile 

 disease of our own country produced by restricted diet in a similar manner. 

 As Barlow first showed, it may rapidly be cured by treatment with fresh 

 vegetables, such as the portion of potato lying below the rind, or fresh 

 fruit of different kinds. There is little doubt that rickets and ship's 

 scurvy, which are now being investigated, will prove diseases of a similar 

 kind. 



"These are examples of external hormones from outside the body 

 required in the daily food, but the body cells within require to manu- 

 facture internal hormones, to establish important correlating functions. 

 If the nervous system be compared to the telephonic or telegraphic system, 

 then these internal hormones might represent the postal system of the 

 body by which one part is kept in touch with another. The chemical 

 intercommunication of the hormones is slower than that of the nervous 

 system, but more detailed and complete. 



"There exist in the body a number of glands with no external secre- 

 tions or obvious uses which were a great mystery to the earlier anatomists 

 and physiologists, who called them 'bodies' or 'capsules' and left the 

 matter at that. The chief of these are called the suprarenals, the thyroids, 

 the para-thyrpids, and the pituitary. It is now known that these are active 

 secreting glands, and in spite of their small size, and obscurity of function, 

 are absolutely essential to the life of the animal. Their removal invariably 

 causes death in a few days' to a few months' time, and any marked 

 disturbance of their function in the direction either of excess or defect 

 produces profound disease, often of a fatal character." (Benjamin Moore, 

 The Origin- and Nature of Life, pp. 232-235.) 



More marvellous still is the action on the processes of life of the until 

 recently unsuspected enzymes. "Most, perhaps all, of the processes of 

 metabolism, take place with the help of special proteins, known as fer- 

 ments or enzymes, which have the property of facilitating and hastening 

 chemical actions. Just as a small trace of platinum black will cause an 

 indefinitely large amount of hydrogen peroxide (HaOa) to decompose into 

 oxygen and water, so a small quantity of ferment will cause an indefinitely 

 large amount of carbohydrate, fat, or protein, to break up into simpler 

 substances. Such ferments, which are not themselves affected, and which 

 are not involved in the end products of the actions they facilitate, are 

 called catalytic, and play a most important part in the mechanism of life." 

 (Edwin S. Goodrich, op. c/Y., pp. 12-13.) 1 



126. (g) Wide, Varied, and Discriminating Observation. 

 We should not only inspect an appreciable number of instances, 

 but we should take heed that we diligently search for variations 

 and for circumstances which contradict partly or wholly the 

 hypothesis which we are endeavouring to substantiate. For 

 example, "gun cotton can usually be burned in the open air 

 without exploding. Yet, when it is exploded by detonation, its 

 power is not much inferior to that of nitroglycerin". (Blanchard 

 and Wade, Foundations of Chemistry, 1914, p. 423.) Innumerable 

 samples, culled from every imaginable and likely or unlikely 

 source near and far in space and time should be scrutinised. 

 One might roughly say that observation should be from twenty 



1 On this subject consult James Beatty, The Method of Enzyme Action, 1917. 



