JOHN A. KOLMER ii2g 



duced infection may yet show a favorable effect in less severe and fulminating diseases 

 of human beings. 



Since tuberculosis was one of the first diseases to be produced experimentally and 

 since the disease is so readily induced in guinea pigs, it is no wonder that the major 

 portion of experimental work in chemotherapy with mercury and other metals was 

 conducted with this infection. 



In so far as the ordinary and well-known organic and inorganic salts of mercury 

 are concerned, it may be stated that none has shown any appreciable curative effects 

 upon tuberculosis produced in guinea pigs although De Witt has found that mercuro- 

 phen and mercurochrome seemed to delay considerably the development of the dis- 

 ease in guinea pigs, although generalized tuberculosis occurred in all the animals that 

 lived long enough. 



Although arsenic has long been advocated as beneficial in the treatment of 

 tuberculosis, it has not been demonstrated to have any specific action, and its value 

 in this disease can be attributed only to its favorable influence on metabolism. 



Probably no compounds of the heavy metals have commanded as much attention 

 in the treatment of tuberculosis as the salts of gold; indeed, quite a large literature has 

 accumulated upon the subject in so far as the treatment of tuberculosis of human 

 beings is concerned, but relatively few experiments have been conducted with experi- 

 mental tuberculosis of the lower animals, and the results of these have been largely of 

 a negative character. Within recent years a new gold compound designated as 

 "sanocrysin," produced by M0llgaard, in Copenhagen, is attracting considerable 

 attention in the treatment of tuberculosis, but a final opinion of its value cannot now 

 be expressed. From our knowledge of the action of gold compounds in general in 

 tuberculosis, I surmise that the toxic reactions produced by this compound are due to 

 foci poisons from the lesions engendered by the tuberculin-like reactions of hyperemia, 

 exudation, and enhanced cellular necrosis. Possibly its curative effects are likewise 

 similar to those produced by these tuberculin-like reactions favoring the laying down 

 of fibrous tissue, without involving the question of direct and marked tubercu- 

 locidal properties of the compound itself. Recently Schamberg and Wright have 

 found sodium and gold thiosulphate quite efficacious in the treatment of lupus 

 erythematosis. 



Copper is another metal which has attracted considerable attention in the treat- 

 ment of tuberculosis and especially of human beings, but without much support from 

 the standpoint of its effects in experimental infections. Cyanocuprol has been ex- 

 tensively used in Japan and with apparently good results in some cases but it is now 

 the consensus of opinion that the effects are not specific but due to the focal tubercu- 

 lin-like reactions which may be produced. 



lodin and iodin preparations have also long held a place of interest in the treat- 

 ment of tuberculosis and especially, from the chemotherapeutic standpoint, as a 

 carrier of more potent chemical antiseptics into tubercles; but it has as yet given little 

 encouragement in this direction. 



The salts of cerium samarium, neodymium, praseodymium, and other rare 

 metals are commanding considerable attention in the chemotherapy of tuberculosis, 

 especially from French physicians, but De Witt states that the results of experimental 



