Monophysitism

“ The foregoing sketch of the early Christological heresies exhibits monophysitism as a product of two opposite intellectual currents. A man's convictions are settled for him partly by acceptance, partly by rejection of what tradition offers or his mind evolves. The mass mind works similarly. It accepts and rejects, approves and disallows. The stabilisation of a body of mass opinions, such as a heresy, is thus determined by opposite forces. It was so with monophysitism. Its Christian antecedents comprised positive and negative currents. The positive current was docetism, the negative ebionitism. ”

“ We have applied the doctrine to the human nature as a whole, and to the several parts that compose it. The result of the examination may be summarised in brief. Monophysitism destroys what is divine in the deity and what is human in the humanity. It offers to Christians a Christ who is not sufficiently above man to be able to help them by His power, nor sufficiently man to be able to help them by His sympathy. The monophysite Christ is neither very God nor very man, but a composition in which all traces of the original entities are lost to view. ”

“ The epigenesis of a spiritual body lies outside his horizon. The volitionist finds all the value of life in the moral nature. For him the good will persists when all else is resolved into nothingness. Character alone, he says, survives the shock of death. All these limited views of survival are symptoms of monophysite ways of thinking. The Christian, on the contrary, holds that what is redeemed eo ipso survives. Whatever else is involved in redemption persistence certainly is included. Monophysitism stands for a partial redemption ”

“ Monophysitism is in our midst undetected to-day. It is not hard to account for its prevalence. The clergy are for the most part unable to expound Christology, and the laity are impatient of exposition. Anything savouring of precise theology is at a discount. ”

“ They are constituents of human nature. There may be other elements as yet unanalysed; but there can be no complete humanity that is deficient in respect of any of these parts. We propose to take them singly in the above order, to show their existence in the historic Christ, and to expose the monophysite attempts to explain them away. ”

“ Effect of Parasitism on the Parasite.—The usual effect of parasitism on the parasitic organism is that the various organs necessary for a free life tend to degenerate, whilst there is a multiplication and development of organs of adhesion, by means of which the parasite maintains its hold on its host. There is further an immense increase in the powers of reproduction, which may take the form of an increase in the number of fertilised eggs produced, or the parasite may at some time of its life reproduce asexually, by budding, or fission, or parthenogetically. ”

“ A small number of the vast host, a score or two of species, unfortunately for us, find their most favourable living place in the human body, and thus become human parasites. By their growth they develop poisons and produce disease. This small class of parasites are then decidedly our enemies. But, taken all together, we must regard the bacteria as friends and allies. Without them we should not have our epidemics, but without them we should not exist. Without them it might be that some individuals would live a little longer, if indeed we could live at all. ”

“ There are, however, some species which cause mankind much trouble by interfering in one way or another with the normal processes of life. These pathogenic bacteria, or disease germs, do not all act alike, but bring about injury to man in a number of different ways. We may recognise two different classes among them, which, however, we shall see are connected by intermediate types. These two classes are, first, the pathogenic bacteria, which are not strictly parasitic but live free in Nature; and, second, those which live as true parasites in the bodies of man or other animals. ”

“ The protozoa parasitic in blood of the vertebrate host undergo a vegetative or non-sexual multiplication, the process being then known as schizogony; but in order to ensure their further existence, and their passage from one vertebrate host (intermediary host) * [1] to another, a further cycle in a cold-blooded invertebrate host (definitive host) is necessary, during which the sexual cycle or sporogony takes place.
In the vertebrate blood the young parasite is known as a schizont. The products of the asexual fission are known as merozoites ”

“ The larval and adult stages of endoparasites become similarly specialized, and although there are many cases in which the parasites that excite a disease in one kind of animal are able to infect animals of different species, the general tendency is in the direction of absolute limitation of one parasite, and indeed one stage of one parasite to one kind of host. The series of events seems to be a gradual progression from temporary or occasional parasitism to obligatory parasitism and to a further restriction of the obligatory parasite to a particular kind of host. ”

“ This treatise is not professional, that is to say, it does not concern itself with therapeutics or the curative treatment of parasitic affections; yet it introduces and helps to solve many questions relating to epidemics, endemics, and epizoötics due to parasites. The medical man who only looks at the phenomena of parasitism as displayed within the human territory must of necessity acquire a cramped, narrow, and distorted conception of the rôle played by parasites in the production of disease. ”

“ When two organisms stand habitually in the relation of host and parasite, an equilibrium tends to become established gradually between them, so that a condition is brought about in which, after many generations, the host becomes “tolerant” of the parasite, and the parasite is not lethal to the host, though perhaps capable of setting up considerable disturbance in its vital functions. Many animals are found to contain almost constantly certain internal parasites without being, apparently, in the least affected by them ”

“ We may assume, therefore, at least as a working hypothesis, that a lethal parasite is one that is new to its host, and that a harmless parasite is one long established. Since all parasites must have been new to their proper hosts at some period, recent or remote, in the history of the species, it would follow that the first commencement of parasitism would be in almost all cases a life and death struggle, as it were, between the two organisms concerned, and it is quite conceivable that the host might succumb in the struggle and so be exterminated. ”

“ It must be obvious that in all cases where the intermediate host can be captured and destroyed, the life-cycle of the parasite can be broken and interrupted, and if thus broken, there is an end to the further propagation of the species. The knowledge that we have acquired by experimental research in this connection has already enabled us to set a limit upon the prevalence of certain well-known disorders, such as Trichinosis, Cestode-tuberculosis, and so forth. ”

“ DEVELOPMENT OF THE MALARIAL PARASITES OF MAN.
The commencement of the developmental cycle and of the infection of man, is the sporozoites (fig. 80, 1) which are passed into the blood of a person by the bite of an infected mosquito. Prior to this the parasites collect in the excretory ducts of the salivary glands (fig. 80, 27) of the Anopheles. The sporozoites are elongate and spindle-shaped, 10 μ to 20 μ long and 1 μ to 2 μ broad, with an oval nucleus situated in the middle. ”

“ Man is its intermediate host, and the anopheles its definitive or final host. In the red blood corpuscle of man it is a unicellar organism, from 1 μ to 8 μ in diameter. It has two methods of reproduction, endogenous by spore formation and exogenous or sexual. The former occurs in man; the latter in the mosquito. Without the latter, the parasite being unable to pass from man to man, would die with its host. In endogenous multiplication spores are formed which separate from the original parasite and gain access to other red blood corpuscles. ”

“ Origin of Parasitism.—Now that the theory of spontaneous generation has been disproved, the problem of parasitism is no more than detection of the various causes which may have led organisms to change their environment. Every kind of parasite has relations more or less closely akin which have not acquired the parasitic habit, and every gradation exists between temporary and permanent parasites, between creatures that have been only slightly modified and those that have been profoundly modified in relation to this habit. ”

“ We have again the commoner parasitism of the Epizoa—animals which attach themselves to the surfaces of other animals, and feed on their juices or on their secretions. And once more, we have the equally common parasitism of the Entozoa—creatures which live within other creatures. ”

“ Parasitism, again, implies that the parasite lives permanently at the expense of its host, by sucking its juices or otherwise, and in this case also there are innumerable degrees and varieties of dependence, which defy inclusion in a strictly logical scheme of classification. ”

“ When full grown, the organism encysts and forces its way to the surface and bursts through, leaving a small, gaping wound behind. The cyst sinks to the bottom of the water, nuclear multiplication occurs and a number of young parasites are produced, which leave the cyst and either attack new hosts or else perish.
Opalina ranarum, parasitic in the rectum and urinary bladder of frogs and toads, shows great degradation and simplification due to parasitism, possessing no separate micronuclei, no cytostome, cytopharynx or cytopyge. It has many macronuclei, and is a large parasite. ”

“ The origin of the infection of mice is to be sought in a flagellate of an ectoparasite of the mouse, very probably Herpetomonas pattoni parasitic in various fleas, which protozoön can adapt itself to life in the blood of mice. ”

“ So marked is the tendency to parasitism that they are often parasitic for each other, smaller forms entering into and living upon the larger. Variation does not seem to be so marked in the protozoa as in the bacteria, though this is possibly due to our greater ignorance of them as a class. We are not able, except in rare instances, to grow them in pure culture, and study innumerable generations under changes in the environment, as the bacteria have been studied. ”

“ As already stated, the universal habitat of the parasites in the Vertebrate Occurrence: habitat; effects on host. is the blood; as a result, of course, they are to be met with in the capillaries of practically all the important organs of the body; and it is to be noted that while certain phases (e.g. growing trophozoites, mature gametocytes) are found in the peripheral circulation, others (e.g. schizogonous “rosettes,” young gametocytes) occur in the internal organs, liver, kidneys, &c., where the circulation is sluggish. The relation of the parasites to the blood-cells varies greatly. ”

“ The young forms which have invaded the final host become mature in the latter, or after a longer or shorter period of parasitism again wander forth (as the Œstridæ, Ichneumonidæ, etc.) , and reach the adult stage in the outer world. The young stages, during which the parasites undergo metamorphoses or are even capable of producing one or several intermediate generations, are passed in the intermediate hosts until, as a rule, they are passively carried into the final host and there complete their cycle of development by the formation of the organs of generation. ”

“ Other Parasitic Animals cause Disease.—Besides parasitic protozoans other forms of animals have been found that cause disease. Chief among these are certain round and flat worms, which have come to live as parasites on man and other animals. A one-sided relationship has thus come into existence where the worm receives its living from the host, as the animal is called on which the parasite lives. Consequently the parasite frequently becomes fastened to its host during adult life and often is reduced to a mere bag through which the fluid food prepared by its host is absorbed. ”

“ One other point in regard to the relation of the parasite to its host and this part of the subject may be dismissed. From our standpoint we look upon the presence of parasites in the body as an abnormal condition. From a biological standpoint their presence there is perfectly normal; it is a necessary part of their life. We think that they have no business there, but from the viewpoint of the parasites their whole business is to be just there. If they are not, they perish. ”

“ Those which can live as parasites upon man are, of course, especially related to human disease, and are of particular interest to the physician, while those which live in animals are in a similar way of interest to veterinarians.
Thus we see that parasitic bacteria show the widest variations. They differ in point of attack, in method of attack, and in the part of the body which they seize upon as a nucleus for growth. They differ in violence and in the character of the poisons they produce, as well as in their power of overcoming the resisting powers of the body. ”

“ Naturally, the effort is to destroy these germs at the focus of infection, or to render the conditions in the body of the infected individual unfavorable for their development. When the focus of infection is superficial or within comparatively easy reach, as in erysipelas or diphtheria, local treatment with germicidal agents is often attended with favorable results. But when the deeper tissues and organs of the body are invaded, or the germ multiplies abundantly in the blood, but little can be accomplished by the use of agents of this class. ”