Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/169

Rh certain bacteria possessed by some animals is due in large measure to an inhibition of the growth of the micro-organism, it must also be remembered that there is in many species a distinct immunity to the action of the poison which the specific micro-organism produces. This immunity depends either upon a destruction of the poison as by oxidation, upon a combination between the poison and some constituents of the active protoplasmic cells of the body, thereby rendering the poison inactive, or, lastly, to some action of the specific protoplasmic cells of the body usually affected by the poison, by which the latter is unable to combine with the cells upon which it ordinarily acts. All these suggestions, however, imply chemical reactions of some kind, and obviously should be understood for a betterment of our knowledge upon this important matter.

Again, the specific immunity which shows itself after exposure to a given disease, so that a second infection becomes practically impossible, can be explained satisfactorily only on chemical grounds, viz., by the presence in the blood and lymph of certain protective or immunizing substances which presumably originate through chemical changes in the blood-serum, under the influence of the bacteria causing the disease. These are chemical substances, formed through chemical decompositions or alterations of normal constituents of the blood, and obviously we need to know more of their exact nature.

Following Ehrlich's views, specific antitoxins, bactericidal sera, etc., result from the overproduction of molecules in cells which are sensitive to the action of toxins and other bacterial products. Antitoxins so formed unite with toxins, and the so-called complementary bodies and the bactericidal antibodies combine with the bacterial cells, thus affording protection. These processes of alteration and combination, however, are presumably all chemical, involving either alteration of chemical structure, or direct combination of bodies chemically the opposite of each other. Further, the so-called haptophor groups of the toxin molecule are probably represented in fact by chemical groups or radicles, which owe their power of combination with corresponding groups of other cells to chemical affinity. Again, the complementary body, normally present in all healthy blood sera and which is needed along with the specific antibody for the destruction of bacterial cells, must owe its activity to the power of chemical combination. Hence, we have presented to us at every turn the question of the chemical nature of these various substances, toxin and antitoxin, complement, receptor, haptophor, etc., which are of such vital importance in the production and maintenance of immunity and protection. Surely this is one of the most important problems of the present day in the domain of physiological chemistry, and calls for both patience and skill of the highest order in its solution.