Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/165

 possibility that, in the organ used, substances are inherent which are also contained in other organs. In saying this we are thinking of such a case as the following. It may be that an individual has some diseased connective tissue in some part of his body. The supporting tissues of the organism also have their metabolism, and are quite able to give off disharmonious products into the blood, especially if they are profoundly altered or broken down. Every organ contains connective tissues, though whether they possess an organically specific structure is highly doubtful. It would certainly be of the greatest importance, if so-called failures were tested with connective tissue pure and simple, and then with the corresponding organ without its connective tissue. It would also be advisable, in the case of unexpected results, to test with the albumens of blood serum, and those of blood corpuscles. Studies of this kind will lead much more quickly to clear results than the hurried collection of data which have probably been all subject to the same source of error.

Amongst other observations which have been communicated up to the present time we shall refer to the following. Epstein found that out of thirty-seven cases of cancerous patients all but one, originating from a cachectic patient, aged 80, decomposed the coagulated albumen of carcinoma, while in no one case was the albumen of placenta