THE DEFENSES OF THE BODY 279 



is confined to the cells or integers of cells that it destroys, 

 but occurs rather indirectly as a function of the surround- 

 ing uninjured tissues that have been excited to bioplastic 

 activity through the removal of the restraint hitherto 

 exerted by the cells destroyed by the irritant; and, finally, 

 when such bioplastic activity is called into play there is 

 always hypercounpensation — i. e., there is more plastic 

 material generated than is necessary to compensate for the 

 loss. Ehrlich applies this idea to the individual cell, which 

 he conceives to be a complex molecule, comprising a primary 

 central nucleus to which are attached by side chains its 

 secondary atom-groups, in much the same way that our 

 conception of the reaction-structure of complex organic 

 chemical compounds is represented graphically. Injury to 

 one or more of these physiologically essential atom-groups 

 results, according to the view of Weigert, in disturbance 

 of the cell-equilibrium and consequent effort on the part 

 of the surrounding atom-groups at compensatory repair. 

 With this liberation of bioplastic energy there is more 

 plastic material generated than is necessary for the repair 

 of the inj ury . The excess of this material finds its way into the 

 blood and, as we shall see presently, is regarded by Ehrlich 

 as the real antidotal, immune, or protective substance. 



Assuming a specific combining relation between toxic sub- 

 stances and particular cells or secondary atom-groups of 

 cells — and there are experimental grounds for this assump- 

 tioni — it is evident that the combination between the intoxi- 

 cant and the particular atom-group for which it has a specific 



' See Wassermann und Takaki, Ueber tetanus antitoxische Eigen- 

 schaften des normalen Centralnervensystems, Berliner klin. Wochen- 

 schrift, 1898, No. 1, S. 5. Neisser und Wechsberg, Zeitschrift filr Hygiene 

 und Infektionskrankheiten, Bd. xxxvi, S. 299. Madsen, ibid., Bd. xxxii, S. 

 214. 



