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In this general discussion of poisons we are dealing with a subject which is somewhat obscure, but apparently the pathogenic bacteria are able to overcome the alexines of the body by producing in their turn certain other products which neutralize the alexines, thus annulling their action.
They have been named alexines, and they are produced in the living tissue, although as to the method of their production we are in ignorance. By the aid of these poisons the body is able to prevent the growth of the vast majority of bacteria which get into its tissues.
Ordinary micro-organisms are killed at once, for these alexines act as antiseptics, and common bacteria can no more grow in the living body than they could in a solution containing other poisons Thus the body has a perfect protection against the majority of bacteria.
Even if the bacteria do thus overcome the alexines the battle is not yet over, for the individual has another method of defence which is now brought into activity to check the growth of the invading organisms. They are minute bits of protoplasm present in the blood and lymph in large quantities.
According to our present knowledge the method is a chemical one. These cells, when they thus collect in quantities around the invaders, appear to secrete from their own bodies certain injurious products which act upon the bacteria much as do the alexines already mentioned.
The question whether one shall suffer from a germ disease is not simply the question whether he shall be exposed, or even the question whether the bacteria shall find entrance into his body. It is equally dependent upon whether he has the bodily vigour to produce alexines in proper quantity, or to summon the phagocytes in sufficient abundance and vigour to ward off the attack.
They, as well as the harmless forms, find these alexines injurious to their growth, but in some way they are able to counteract the poisons.
These lysines are as mysterious to us as the alexines, but they neutralize the effect of the alexines and thus overcome the resistance the body offers to bacterial growth The invaders can now multiply rapidly enough to get a lasting foothold in the body and then soon produce the abnormal symptoms which we call disease Pathogenic bacteria thus differ from the non-pathogenic bacteria primarily in this power of secreting products which can neutralize the ordinary effects of the alexines, and so overcome the body's normal resistance to their parasitic life.
These new bodies have a decidedly injurious effect upon the multiplying bacteria; they rapidly check their growth, and, acting in union with the alexines, may perhaps entirely destroy them. Sometimes they pass back into the blood stream and carry the bacteria to various parts of the body for elimination.
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