Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/139

 Organ A only appears to refuse to work because, as the result of a primary dys-function of organ B, the secretions are unable to achieve their aim in the proper place. They are caught up too soon.

We must not forget to mention, that it is, perhaps, more often than we imagine, that substances which are out of harmony with the plasma circulate in the blood. We are thinking particularly of disintegration of the form-elements of the blood. That ferments, directed against the components of the red blood corpuscles, can be found in animals that are apparently quite normal, is shown by the fact that, amongst horses and cattle, about 40 per cent. of cases investigated gave a decomposition of albumen which originated from the form-elements (E. Abderhalden and A. Weil).

The following experiments supply a striking indication of the probable cause of this phenomenon. Blood was taken from a rabbit. The serum neither decomposed any organ that was free from blood, nor any organ that contained blood—traces of blood being quite sufficient. Without any further treatment, blood was again taken from the animal after two days, and again the serum gave no decomposition with any organ free from blood. On the other hand, the reaction gave positive results with all organs that contained blood. It was certainly not the albumen of the organs that was decomposed, but the blood