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y part of the body stimulates the tissue of the same kind to new growth and the loss is thus repaired; it is assumed that the cell receptors which combine with the toxine are lost for the cell which then produces them in excess. The receptors so produced pass into the blood, where they combine with the toxine which has been absorbed; the combination is a stable one, and the toxine is thus prevented from combining with the tissue cells. The antitoxine which is formed during the disease, and the production of which in the horse can be enormously stimulated by the injection of toxine, represents merely the excess of cell receptors, and when the serum of the horse containing them is injected in a case of diphtheria the same combination takes place as in the case of receptors provided by the patient. In the case of the destruction of bacteria in the blood by the action of amboceptor and complement, the amboceptor must be able to combine with both the bacterial cell and the complement which brings about its destruction, and just as antitoxine is formed so new amboceptors may be formed. Few hypotheses have been advanced in science which are more ingenious, in better accord with the facts, have had greater importance in enabling the student to grasp the intricacies of an obscure problem, and which have had an equal influence in stimulating research. The immunity which results from disease in accordance with this theory, is due not to conditions preventing the entrance of organisms into the body, but to greater aptitude on the part of the cells to produce these protective substances having once learned to do so. An individual need not practise for many years, having once learned them, those combinations of muscular action used in swimming; but the habit at once returns when he falls into the water. Infectious diseases and recovery are phases of the struggle for existence between parasite and host, and illustrate the power of adaptation to environment which is so striking a characteristic of living matter. FOOTNOTES: [1] The comparison here is with the atrium of a Pompeiian house. CHAPTER VIII SECONDARY, TERMINAL AND MIXED INFECTIONS.--THE EXTENSION OF INFECTION IN THE INDIVIDUAL.--TUBERCULOSIS.--THE TUBERCLE BACILLUS.--FREQUENCY OF THE DISEASE.--THE PRIMARY FOCI.--THE EXTENSION OF BACILLI.--THE DISCHARGE OF BACILLI FROM THE BODY.--INFLUENCE OF THE SEAT OF DISEASE ON THE DISCHARGE OF BACILLI.--THE INTESTINAL
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