Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/116

, and its special organs, the lymphatic glands, and would attempt to decompose some of the disharmonious products before they reach the blood. In many cases, however, disharmonious material will get into the blood, and produce all kinds of disturbances.

We know of at least two conditions in which disharmonious substances undoubtedly circulate in the blood, namely, Bence Jones's albuminuria, and pregnancy. In the latter case it is certain that we are deal in cj 1 with substances that are in harmony with the species, while in the first case there is a possibility that disharmonious substances are present. Bence Jones's albuminuria is nearly always found in conjunction with sarcoma of the bones. Whether the sarcoma is to be regarded as a harmonious tissue or not, we are not yet in a position to decide.

As to pregnancy, we know, thanks to the important observations of Schmorl, that the cells of the chorionic villi may be torn off, and be carried into the circulation. Veit has indeed proved that these cases are relatively frequent. Weichardt, and later also Richard Freund, tried to connect the appearance of chorionic villi in the circulation with eclampsia. Weichardt was thinking of a dissolution of the cells—cytolysis—in which case toxic products are supposed to appear.