ii2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



of diphtheria and tetanus. A little later he applied these 

 results to human patients, and after 1894 the serum treatment 

 of diphtheria became the routine remedy. Thus to Behring 

 is due the first successful application of serum therapy to man. 

 His also is the merit, of much practical importance, of dis- 

 covering that the horse is the most suitable animal for the 

 preparation of the antitoxic serum. More recently, in 191 3, 

 he introduced a prophylactic remedy consisting of a neutral 

 or nearly neutral mixture of toxin and antitoxin, which is still 

 undergoing the test of experience. 



Before his epoch-making discovery Behring had worked on 

 the bactericidal property of serum and from it deduced the 

 ideas which formed the basis of the humoral theory of immunity 

 which he was the earliest to express in the following words : 

 The immunity of rabbits and mice which have been immunised 

 against tetanus depends on the capability of the cell-free 

 plasma to render harmless the toxic substance produced by the 

 tetanus bacilli. 



Less well known is Behring 's work on disinfection and anti- 

 septics. Some of his researches in this direction were funda- 

 mental and of great practical value. He recognised the 

 importance of the chemical composition of the substance to be 

 disinfected and especially the neutralising power of proteids 

 on many disinfectants. His book on Infection and Disinfection 

 in 1894 was probably the first systematic treatise on this 

 subject. 



Later on Behring turned his attention also to tuberculosis, 

 and devised a method for the immunisation of young cattle by 

 the intravenous injection of ground-up tubercle bacilli of human 

 type. The method was certainly successful, but, to Behring*s 

 disappointment, seems never to have been taken up, although 

 duly confirmed by several workers. 



It is perhaps becoming more common to recognise merit 

 during the life-time of the deserver, and Behring 's is one of those 

 cases. Reputation and wealth flowed to him as the discoverer 

 of a remedy for diphtheria. The Paris Academy of Medicine 

 and the Institute of France both awarded him their most 

 distinguished prizes, and later he received also the Nobel prize. 



Behring possessed in high degree the rare capacity to lay 

 a solid theoretical foundation and to build thereon a useful 

 practical superstructure. 



