APPLICATIONS OF RESULTS OF RESEARCHES. 



363 



individual-types. This last statement already has sup- 

 port in the results of collateral lines of research which 

 bear upon the specificities of enzymes, anaphylaxis, pre- 

 cipitin reactions, immune sera, etc. 



From the foregoing data it seems obvious that the 

 complex organic substances which may ie assumed to 

 constitute the essential fundamental constituents of 

 ■protoplasm and the immediate complex synthetic prodr- 

 ucts of protoplasmic activity may exist in exceedingly 

 numerous or even countless stereoisomeric forms, each 

 form being peculiarly and specifically modified in rela- 

 tion to genus, species, variety, race, sex, individual, or 

 . even part of an individual. 



Pkotoplasm a Complex Steeeoisomeeic System. 



The next logical step in our investigation is mani- 

 festly the study of the bearings of these stereoisomers, as 

 such and in their variable combinations and associations, 

 upon the structure, processes, and products of proto- 

 plasm. Protoplasm, according to the modern develop- 

 ments of biochemistry, is to be regarded as being in the 

 nature of an extremely complex, labile aggregate of pro- 

 teins, fats, carbohydrates, and other substances that are 

 peculiarly associated to constitute a physico-chemical 

 mechanism. The possible number of " phases " in which 

 such a system can exist varies with the forms of the 

 stereoisomerides and in general with the number and in- 

 dependent variability of the components. In such a 

 mechanism we conceive that the number of variables is 

 inconceivably great. From analogy we believe that such 

 mechanisms are so extremely sensitive that the proper- 

 ties and processes may be modified by even so slight a 

 change as the substitution of one form of stereoisomeride 

 for another of the same prototype. Were it practicable 

 to examine all of the most complex of the organic struc- 

 tural components of protoplasm, it doubtless would be 

 found that every one exists in a form peculiar to the 

 individual and his position in classification. Moreover, 

 we must conceive that the components of protoplasm 

 are as specific in relation to the form of protoplasm as 

 are the peculiar forms of stereoisomers, so that differ- 

 ent forms of protoplasm are characterized physico-chemi- 

 cally (1) by the peculiarities of the stereoisomerides, and 

 (3) by the peculiarities of the kinds, combinations, 

 associations, and arrangements of the components in 

 the three dimensions of space. 



In accordance with the foregoing the human organ- 

 ism may be regarded as being a highly organized com- 

 posite of heterogeneous physico-chemical systems that 

 are composed of a vast number of parts, each such part 

 representing a particular "phase" of the system and 

 being physically, mechanically, chemically, and func- 

 tionally an individual interacting unit of the aggregate. 

 Hence, it follows that the sum or totality of these pecu- 

 liarly modified stereoisomers per se, and of their arrange- 

 ments with the associated components, constitutes a 

 " stereochemic system" peculiar to the cell; that the 

 sum of the cell-systems is peculiar to the tissue ; that the 

 sum of the tissue-systems is peculiar to the organ ; and 

 that the sum of the organ-systems is peculiar to the 

 individual. 



While the living organism had been for years recog- 

 nized as being in the nature of an exceedingly complex 

 physico-chemical aggregate of interacting independent 



and interdependent parts that constitute a single work- 

 ing unit in only recent years have the mechanisms that 

 bring about co-operative activities of the various parts 

 been made clear. The governing influences of the ner- 

 vous system were found inadequate even in the highest 

 organisms, not to speak of forms of life in which such 

 actions occur, but in which there is apparently a total 

 absence of nervous matter. As an associate of the ner- 

 vous system, and doubtless far antedating it in organic 

 evolution, is a correlative mechanism of a chemical char- 

 acter of the greatest importance, and doubtless equally 

 so throughout the whole range of living organisms from 

 the lowest to the highest. Every living cell, whether 

 it be in the form of a unicellular organism or a com- 

 ponent of a multicellular organism, is undoubtedly in 

 the nature of a heterogeneous stereochemic system, each 

 of the component parts of the system forming substances 

 which may affect directly or indirectly the activities of 

 the processes of the other parts ; likewise, every cell of a 

 multicellular organism is not only in itself a hetero- 

 geneous system, but a part of a number of associated 

 heterogeneous systems and which by virtue of certain 

 of its products, with or without the agency of the blood- 

 vascular or lymph-vascular systems, may exercise in- 

 fluences upon other structures, which structures may 

 have or seemingly not have either structural or physio- 

 logical relationship. Thus we find that a secretin formed 

 in the pyloric glands of the gastric mucosa may excite 

 the glands of the cardia; that growth is determined by 

 some product or products of the pituitary body that are 

 carried to the various structures; that the liver, pan- 

 creas and intestinal glands are excited to secretory activ- 

 ity by a peculiar substance formed in the duodenal and 

 jejunal mucosae; that carbohydrate metabolism in the 

 liver and muscles is influenced to a profound degree by 

 hormones that are formed in the pancreas ; that lactation 

 is determined essentially by substances derived from the 

 corpus luteum, placenta, and involuting womb ; that the 

 periods of ovulation and menstruation are inhibited by 

 secretions of the corpus luieum; that vitally important 

 states of activity of the generative organs are directly asso- 

 ciated with functions of the adrenal and other glands; and 

 that normal development, especially of secondary sexual 

 characters, is intimately related to the ovaries and tes- 

 ticles. To these extraordinary correlations might be 

 added many others. Some of the bodily structures are 

 in this way so definitely associated in their activities as 

 to constitute co-operating or interacting systems, so that 

 the tissue products are complementary, supplementary, 

 synergistic, or antagonistic in their influences upon 

 given structures. Such correlations must be, for per- 

 fectly obvious reasons, one of the most primitive forms 

 of interprotoplasmie correlation, and we are justified, 

 upon the basis of our present knowledge, in the con- 

 clusion that each active part of a cell, each cell, each 

 tissue and each organ contributes products which may 

 affect the activities of functionally related or imrelated 

 parts. Hence would follow the dictum that not only is 

 every part of a cell, every cell, every tissue, and every 

 organ an individualized stereochemic unit, but also that 

 its operations, and hence the nature of its products, must 

 be subject directly or indirectly to the influence of every 

 other active part of the organism, however different the 

 structures and functions may be. 



