Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/69

 disharmonious cells settle on any spot within the hitherto harmonious cell complex. From this moment the harmoniously organized cells of the tissues are subjected to the influence of a kind of cell which has an utterly strange organization of its own. These new cells have a characteristic metabolism corresponding with their whole structure and configuration, and this they bring with them definitely into the new organism. They pass into the blood numerous end-products of their metabolism. Further, some cells decay here and there, and partial products reach the blood which are out of harmony with the species, and, of course, entirely so with the plasma and the cell. The whole regulation of tho normal metabolism is seriously injured. The cells of the gut-wall will still be on the watch to prevent any disharmonious material from entering the organism; and the single cells of the body will still struggle to supply the blood only with properly altered substances. But the whole organization has been damaged, in regard to the collaboration of its various cells, by the fact that disharmonious substances are continually given off by the invaders. The very same thing occurs if, through any cause whatsoever, the cells of the body change their structure and acquire a metabolism which is entirely foreign to the rest of the cells of the body. If cancer cells or sarcoma cells, for instance, appear, then we