MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 151 



ported a number of my cases I shall now select some of the more recent 

 ones. 



SKIN DISEASES. 



Acne. — My experience in treating acne by bacterial inoculation dupli- 

 cates that reported by Wright and his associates. As a rule I have employed 

 as a source for the inoculating virus the organism (generally Staphylococcus 

 alhus) secured from the patient's pustular lesions or from a comedone. Of 

 the opsonogen prepared from these autogenous cultures a dose of 200 to 500 

 millions is employed, the intervals between inoculations varying from 5 to 

 15 days depending on the opsonic index, or on the constitutional or local 

 symptoms. In no case that I have thus far treated has benefit failed to 

 follow, and apparently full recovery has been achieved in a number of the 

 earlier ones. That the increasing of the blood's resistance the ofTending 

 organism in any staphylococcic disease by the use of a specific opsonogen 

 exerts a profound influence is shown by the most interesting phenomena. 

 Thus the comedones in seborrhoeic acne are spontanoeusly extruded from 

 the skin especially during the first three days after inoculation, until all of 

 these unsightly blemishes disappear. That rough condition of the skin 

 known to dermatologists as keratosis pilaris (Brocq and Unna) disappears. 

 An oily skin becomes less oily. A dry, harsh skin becomes smooth, soft and 

 pliable. A muddy complexion clears. If the hair is excessively oily and full 

 of dandruff at the outset of treatment it becomes less oily and the dandruff 

 disappears. On the other hand, dr}^, harsh hair on a scalp with dry, scaly 

 dandruff, gives way to soft hair with natural oil and freedom from dandruff. 

 I have observed the falling of hair to cease and improved growth to take place 

 during treatment. Coincidentally there is a gain in general tone, appetite 

 and spirits, and patients usually increase in weight. Clearly all this gives 

 us new light upon what our forefathers were wont to call "impure blood;" 

 and it seems that a low blood resistance against the staphylococci of the skin 

 is responsible for more far-reaching local and constitutional conditions than 

 the acne, seborrhoea, or other lesion, which is only the most obvious in its 

 manifestations; and further, that by augmenting the blood's power, or as 

 we have it in lay parlance, to "purify the blood," by the use of these wonder- 

 fully subtle and potent bacterial inoculations, we remedy all the defects. 

 At this juncture I might also add that analogous widespread effects follow 

 the use of other proper and specific inoculations as when directed against 

 the diseases caused by the streptococci, the pneumococci, the colon bacilli, 

 the tubercle bacilli, and the gonococci. 



Furunculosis. — My first patient with boils was my two-year-old baby girl 

 in whom a staphylococcus infection of mosquito bites on its scalp produced 

 a series of large pustules, one after another of which I incised until the pro- 

 cedure became a severe trial to both the patient and myself. For six weeks 

 these boils continued to appear on the scalp and when I finally concluded 

 to use the opsonogen which had been prepared from the staphylococcus 

 aureus isolated from one of the early furuncles, one large boil was present on 

 the side of the head, two on the abdomen in sites not previously the seat of 

 mosquito bites, and one very large so-called "bhnd boil" on the pudendum. 

 All these were incised and the first and only inoculation made. From that 

 day last midsummer to the present the child has had no sigh of a furuncle. 

 This satisfactory experience I have since repeated in a number of cases of 

 subacute or chronic boils and in one case of carbuncle. 

 ' Furunculosis and Axillary Adenitis. — Another of my early staphylococcus 



