Reactions of the Organism to Poisons, etc.
In this case also we meet with a number of responses for whose origin we can give not the shadow of an explanation. On the other hand, the cases are significant in so far as a number of them show quite clearly that the response cannot have been acquired through the experience of the organism, or the selection of those individuals that have best resisted the particular poison. This is true, because in a number of cases the poison is a substance that the animal cannot possibly have met with during the ordinary course of its life, or of that of its ancestors. It may be argued, it is true, that in the case of the poisons produced by certain bacteria the power of resistance has been acquired through the survival of the less susceptible, or more resistant, individuals. Improbable as this may be in some cases, it does not, even if it were true, alter the real issue, for it can be shown, as has just been said, that the same power of responding adaptively is sometimes shown in cases of poisons that are new to the animal.
There is no question that different individuals respond in very different degrees to these poisonous substances, and it is easy to imagine in the case of contagious diseases that a sort of selective process might go on that would bring the race up to the highest point to which fluctuating variations could be carried, even to complete immunity; but even if this were the case, it seems to be true that the moment the selection stopped the race would sink back to the former condition.
All this touches only indirectly the main point that we have under consideration, namely, the existence of this power of resistance in cases where it cannot have been the result of any educative process. Since the responses to new poisons do not appear to be in principle different from the responses to those to which the organism may have possibly been subjected at times in the past, we shall probably not go far wrong if we treat all cases on the same general footing. Whether the power of adaptation to certain substances, such as nicotine, morphine, cocaine, arsenic, alcohol, etc., is brought about by the formation of a counter-substance is as yet unproven. And while it seems not improbable that in some of these instances it may turn out that this is the case, especially for poisons of plant origin, it is better to suspend judgment on this point until each case has been established.
In recent years it has been shown that the animal body has the power of making counter-substances when a very large number of different kinds of things are introduced into the blood. We seem to be here on the threshold of a field for discovery which may, if opened up, give us an insight into some of the most remarkable phenomena of adaptation shown by living things.
It has already been pointed out that it appears to be almost a reductio ad absurdum to speak of animals adapting themselves to poisonous substances. It is curious, too, that in man at least the use of these substances may arouse a craving for the poison, or at any rate the individual may become so dependent on the poison that the depression following its disuse may lead to a desire for a repetition of the dose. The two questions that are raised here must be kept apart, for the adaptation of the individual to the poison and the so-called craving for it may depend on quite different factors. Nevertheless, it seems to be true in the case of morphine and of arsenic, and probably for some other substances as well, that if their use is suddenly stopped the individual may die in consequence. In this respect the organism behaves exactly as it does to an environment to which it has become adapted.