Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/150

 body. The death of a cell of this kind results in the appearance, within the circulation, of substances which are disharmonious. We can make a comparison between a case of this kind and the parenteral injection of substances out of harmony with the body and the plasma; for, in this case, the organism will surely defend itself against the very disharmonious substrate, by depriving the substrate of its specific structure by means of an extensive decomposition. We should then be presented with conditions entirely analogous with the parenteral injection of various substances, or with the invasion, into the circulation, of chorionic cells which are out of harmony with the blood plasma, and the resulting reaction would be entirely similar. But here, too, during decomposition, it may happen that the organism will produce decomposites which are naturally injurious, so that, in any given case, it would mainly depend on whether the intermediate products appeared only in small quantities and were promptly reduced, or whether, conversely, the power of decomposition possessed by the organism is inhibited—either because the decomposites cannot be further reduced or be rejected, or because the ferments necessary for further reduction are not present in sufficient quantity. We can well imagine that the decomposition of the bodies of dead micro-organisms, without the direct participation of the microbes themselves, will give rise to various