154 THE
ENZYME TREATMENT OF CANCER
The
cycle of life, animal or vegetable, is asymmetrical, because the antithetic
alternation of generations underlying it is founded on the asymmetry of these
atoms. The generations, sexual or asexual, alternate according as the compounds
are built up in the one direction or the other, for at its basis development is
the building-up of naturally occurring compounds. In both animals and plants
enzymes or ferments are the chief actors in this. The new organism, whether
animal or plant, destroys that upon which it arose, and builds up in the
opposite direction. The birth of the new fern-plant implies the destruction
of the prothallus. The embryo or sexual generation of a mammal, or a man,
destroys the asexual generation, the trophoblast, or chorion, upon which it
arose, and builds up its compounds in the opposite direction to that employed
by the latter. So also the cancer. This irresponsible trophoblast or asexual
generation destroys the naturally occurring organic compounds and the sexual
organism upon which it arose, and builds up in the opposite direction.
The
action of a ferment is always a specific one. It fits the substance upon which
it acts, “ as a key fits a lock “ (Emil Fischer). Other substances it leaves untouched,
even isomeric compounds having an opposite rotation. As I)r. Margaret A.
Cleaves* wrote in the Medical Record of June 1, 1907: “ It is probable
that enzymes are of stereo-chemical configuration in their construction ; that
is, that they are built upon a central element having a definite valence, and
hence, that all enzymes are capable of entering into chemical action
* Cleaves. M. A .:“The
Physiological Action of the Pancreatic Enzymes, with Special Reference to
Hematology, Urinology, and Clinical Pathology,” Medical Record, June,
1, 1907, New York.