AND ITS RELATION TO ANIMAL LIFE 35 



close proximity to the shop would contain all 

 the iron and nitrogen it required, and would 

 consequently be fairly rich in carbon com- 

 pounds and proteids, from which it must be 

 clear that this sheep would be rich in the 

 same, and as wool is largely a carbon com- 

 pound, we have at once an explanation of 

 the excellent fleeces produced by this stray 

 sheep. 



It is, I think, unquestionable that the 

 chemistry of the carbon compounds of animal 

 life containing a normal haemoglobin must be 

 different to that of the carbon compounds of 

 an anaemic animal. Further, I think it will be 

 found that the carbon compounds of an animal 

 containing a normal haemoglobin are a poison 

 to pathogenic bacteria, whether fungi or the 

 lowest forms of animal life, such as are said to 

 produce malaria ; but when the animal be- 

 comes anaemic, then the carbon compounds 

 become more or less changed, and in so chang- 

 ing become foods for pathogenic bacteria. 



That there is nothing unreasonable in this 

 view is shown by the fact that a carbon com- 

 pound like sugar C 12 H 22 o u is harmless to 

 animal life, while strychnine c, 2 H 22 N 2 o 2 is a 



