Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/142

 and, further, whether the tissue attacked is decomposed by blood serum. Either the micro-organisms will be able to decompose the tissue—their nutritive medium—in a manner harmonious with themselves and disharmonious with the body, and so produce decomposites out of harmony with the plasma, or else the injured tissue will be altered in such a way as to be no longer able to continue the normal processes of its metabolism. A mass of observations are waiting to be made in this direction.

We may point out that it has been ascertained that, in cases of miliary tuberculosis, defensive ferments exist which are directed against tubercle bacilli. It seems that the serum of cattle suffering from tuberculosis is able to decompose the bovine type only. Caseated lung tissues were not decomposed by the serum of animals which suffered from miliary tuberculosis, but only of those which exhibited caseous pneumonia. These experiments, which were performed with the assistance of Andryewsky, on cattle and cows, are an inducement to further studies.

We may take this opportunity of pointing out, that the dialysation process for the demonstration of defensive ferments offers the great advantage of toxilogically testing the products of decomposition. We may use the dialysate, which must, of course, contain the products of decomposition, either directly, or after complete concentration at a low temperature and