220 life's beginning on the earth 



ess of purification before they are used in the treatment of 

 human disease. By administration of the right kind of 

 hormones, in those diseases in which they are missing, mod- 

 ern medicine has achieved its greatest triumphs. Ex- 

 amples of these drugs and their uses are cortin, made from 

 the adrenal glands, administered in Addison's disease; liver 

 extract used in pernicious anemia and ovarian hormone 

 to relieve menopausal conditions; also insulin used for the 

 treatment of diabetes. 



Further progress in this line depends entirely upon chem- 

 istry, which will enable us to prepare more and more hor- 

 mones in pure form. It should also be remembered that 

 hormones are not enzymes, as such, but only members in a 

 group of enzymes which cooperate to bring about enzymatic 

 action. We see therefore that we are only at the beginning 

 of rational healing. 



In the light of this new knowledge we can better under- 

 stand the nature and working of infectious diseases. In 

 these conditions the body is invaded by foreign enzymes 

 which interfere with chemical changes by directing them 

 into abnormal channels. Poisonous material is thereby 

 formed and piled up until eventually the functioning of the 

 vital organs ceases. The aim of medical treatment in in- 

 fectious disease must be to destroy or inactivate the foreign 

 invading enzymes, which may be viruses, bacteria or still 

 other larger parasites. This can be done by numerous 

 poisons, which in this case we consider as disinfectants or 

 antiseptics. A great difficulty is that most antiseptics also 

 destroy or interfere with the body's own enzymes or kill 

 body cells. For this reason mosl of them cannot be used 

 at all. The real problem is to find antiseptics which in- 

 activate only the invading foreign enzymes or viruses but 

 not those of the body. This extremely difficult task has 

 been mastered for some diseases only; syphilis is treated 

 by the specific antiseptic arsphenamine or salvarsan, and 



