MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 159 



the possibilities underlying the new method should be widely disseminated 

 both in the profession and in the public. In the present stage of its develop- 

 ment, however, the practice of opsonic therapy cannot become general 

 without great jeopardy. It should for the time being, at least, remain in 

 the hand of the comparatively rare worker whose training has been largely 

 in the bacteriologic and pathologic laboratory, who has familiarized him- 

 self with practical immunology and sero-therapeutics, and who has, with 

 these accomplishments, had sufficient clinical practice in medicine and sur- 

 gery to enable him to apply with discriminating judgement at the bedside 

 the knowledge gained in the laboratory. Unless the practitioners of opsonic 

 therapy are thus restricted grave consequences may follow, for it must be 

 known that we are dealing with potent biologic agents — potent for good — 

 powerful for evil. The great dangers underlying incautious work in this 

 new and difficult field can be best appreciated by those most skilled in its 

 practice, and the many pitfalls that lie in the path of the opsonist, will, im- 

 less evaded bythe requisite skill and experience, bring this most promising 

 of therapeutic resources into disrepute both in our profession and in the 

 laity. 



The results which it has been my pleasure to recount as having been ob- 

 tained in my personal experience are in general only duplicates of those re- 

 ported by Wright and his followers in Great Britain. And it must be recog- 

 nized that evidence which is now rapidly accumulating indicates that "Wright's 

 practice of bacterial inoculation, based on the opsonic index as a guide, opens 

 a field of remedial possibility great in scope and wide in usefulness. As I 

 have already intimated, many morbid affections considered incurable ac- 

 cording to old standards, become conquerable, others of so chronic and in- 

 tractable a nature as to overtax all previous medical and surgical resources 

 yield in a manner surprising, and from the standpoint both of the physician 

 and patient, most gratifying. We are still but on the outskirts of this new 

 and promising field, and I believe that the day is not far distant when some 

 of the complex features will be eliminated, and when many physicians will 

 practice opsonic therapy. 



Detroit, Mich. 



