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tions of persons who are nianifeslly suflfering from no 

 disease at all. Why then are such persons not suffer- 

 ing from pneumonia, seeing that both their stomachs 

 and their lungs are being constantly invaded by the 

 pneumo-coccus? Simply because the more remote 

 cause has not come into play, that is, the condition of 

 lowered resistance which is necessary before the 

 microbe can get the upper hand. Amongst the many 

 causes of lowered resistance a sadden chill is perhaps 

 the most frequent, especiall}^ when it comes on the 

 top of some other factor, such as the alcoholic habit, 

 impaired kidneys, the recent presence of some other 

 disease, etc., etc. But even without these special helps 

 it is often the determining cause of the contraction 

 of various septicaemias by individuals who are only 

 moderately resistant to the microbes. 



The above remarks, scanty as they are, will, I 

 hope, satisfactorily answer Mr. Harrison's first two 

 questions. The answer to the third, asking for the 

 correct remedy for pneumonia, is simple in the extreme. 

 There is no remedy in the popular sense of a " remedy." 

 In the case of human beings the most we can do is to 

 carefully watch each symptom as it arises, each effect 

 of the poison upon the heart and general system, and 

 to meet such with carefully considered hypodermic 

 doses of such drugs as strychnine, digitaline, etc., etc., 

 with the inhalation of ox}'gen, and in a word with the 

 adoption of such hygienic measures in general, as may 

 seem helpful in maintaining the vitality of the patient 

 over the crisis. And the careful treatment that I have 

 thus sketchily outlined depends after all upon correct 

 diagnosis and upon the fact that the very size and 

 nakedness of the human body affords something in 



