Читать книгу The Body at Work: A Treatise on the Principles of Physiology онлайн

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A still more remarkable property in relation to coagulation must be assigned to leucocytes. The blood of a dog which has been rendered incoagulable by injection of peptone recovers its coagulability after a time. If a further injection of “peptone” be made, the animal is found to be immune. Injection of “peptone” no longer renders its blood incoagulable. In a similar manner the blood develops a power of resisting the action of agents which induce its coagulation whilst circulating in the vascular system. Nucleo-proteins contained in extracts of lymphatic glands and other organs when injected into the veins of living animals cause their blood to clot, provided they are injected in sufficient quantity. If they are injected in quantity less than sufficient to induce coagulation, they render the animal immune to their influence. A larger quantity given to an animal thus prepared fails to take effect. This brings the phenomena of coagulation and resistance to coagulation to the verge of chemistry. They extend into the domain in which pathology reigns. Tempting though it be to record other facts with regard to these phenomena which recent investigation has brought to light, it is probably judicious to leave the problem at the frontier. Across the frontier lies a fascinating land, rich with unimaginable possibilities for the human race. Settlement is rapidly proceeding in this country, which is charted, like other border-lands, with barbarous names: “antibodies,” “haptors,” “amboceptors,” “toxins,” “antitoxins,” and the like—finger-posts to hypotheses which show every sign of hasty and provisional construction. But certain facts stand out, in whatever way theory may, in the future, link them up. The virus of hydrophobia, modified by passing through a rabbit, develops in human beings, even when injected after they have been infected, the power of resisting hydrophobia. The serum of a horse which has acquired immunity to diphtheria aids the blood of a child, which has not had time to become immune, in destroying the germs of this disease. It is a contest between the blood and offensive bodies of all kinds which find entrance to it, whether living germs or poisons in solution; with victory always, in the long-run, on the side of the blood, provided its owner does not die in the meantime. And not only is the blood victorious in the struggle with any given invader, but having repulsed him, it retains for a long while a property which neutralizes all further attempts at aggression on his part. In the past, physicians have fought disease with such clumsy weapons as mercury, arsenic, and quinine. Now they anticipate disease. In mimic warfare with an attenuated virus the blood is trained to combat. Smallpox which has been passed through the body of a cow is suppressed by the blood’s native strength. The exercise develops skill to deal with the most virulent germs of the same kind. In cases in which physicians cannot anticipate disease in human beings, they train the blood of animals to meet it; and, keeping their serum in stock, they can, when the critical moment arrives, reinforce the fighting strength of the patient with this mercenary aid.