The biological basis of specific therapy / [by] Dr. Simon Flexner.

  • Flexner, Simon, 1863-1946.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The biological basis of specific therapy / [by] Dr. Simon Flexner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    diphtheria by antitoxin, perhaps the most perfect ex- ample of all, consists essentially in the neutralization of an universally distributed toxic or poisonous agent that is directly the source of the serious effects of the disease. When in generalized infections the surviv- ing micro-organisms escape from the blood and tissue, as sometimes happens in luetic or other diseases, to aggregate in special situations and local pathological products that are reached imperfectly by the lymph, then the specific drug or other agents assert their curative power with far more difficulty and far less certainty. Medicine is now armed with a number of specific remedies for serious diseases, consisting partly of chem- ical compounds of known composition and partly of more complex serum products of unascertained nature. The number of drugs is potentially greater than the num- ber of sera and is capable of almost unlimited expan- sion, so that doubtless therapeutics will be greatly enriched by future discovery in this fascinating field. That many immune sera are capable of being prepared artificially is also certain, but the degree of their applicability will need to be worked out in any given instance. It is already clear that the immune sera closely resemble the natural defenses against infection and its consequences, so that it follows that they are essentially non-foreign bodies, and thus, technically, ideal agents with which to combat disease. They are, in essence, so precisely fashioned as to operate exclusively against the agents of infection and thus to pass over without molestation the sensitive cells of the organs. In fact, their action is less specific than this statement implies because as now manufactured they carry with them, in the natural serum of animals, cer-