Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism.
The question has frequently been raised, whether unicellular organisms exhibit simpler processes, in their general organization and metabolism, than do organisms composed of numerous cells. A priori, it is conceivable that organisms of a morphologically simpler construction are composed of simpler combinations, and that their metabolic processes follow a simpler path, than is the case in those forms of life in which the body is built up by the co-operation of different cells. But all our experience, hitherto, has proved, that even those cells which are constructed on a simple plan morphologically do, when studied from a purely chemical point of view, show exceedingly complicated relations. Indeed, the study of the processes of metabolism in unicellular forms of life is a study all the more difficult, in comparison with that of more complicated organisms, in that, in the former, it is so difficult to separate the actually
