Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/93

 observed. Surely it would be absurd to limit the study of anaphylaxy only to a study of the behaviour of the blood; for it is more than likely that it is the cells of the body which ultimately play the chief part in the appearance of anaphylaxy. The behaviour of the blood plasma is possibly only a reflection of the defensive measures adopted by the cells of the body; while, in any given case, it may be only a special type of cell that has to be considered.

Special interest attaches to the proof of how the organism reacts when blood of its own kind, or from another animal species, is introduced into its circulation. In the latter case ferments appeared in the plasma, which decomposed albumens and peptones. If harmonious blood were chosen from an animal of the same race, no reaction whatever was noticed when it was transmitted directly, i.e., without leaving the blood-vessels. When, on the contrary, blood which belonged to an entirely different race was introduced into a dog, then a decomposition could be demonstrated within the circulation.

Against the results thus obtained one might raise the objection that the appearance in the circulation of active reducing ferments would give rise to enormous disturbances, because even those albuminous bodies that are in harmony with the plasma are liable to be attacked by them. But this is evidently not the case, since the plasma, though containing an