Section IV., 1903 [ 3 ] Trans. R. S. C. 



I. — An Experimental Study on the Effect of the Blood-sera of Normal and 

 Immunized Goats in Modifying the Progress of Tuberculous 

 Infection. 



By Albert George Nicholls, M.A., M.D., CM., 



Lecturer in Pathology, McGill University, and Assistant Pathologist to the 



Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal. 



From the J. E. R. Molson Laboratories of Pathology. 



(Communicated by Professor J. G. Adarra, M.D., and read May 19, 1903.) 



One of the most important subjects, if not indeed the most impor- 

 tant, occupying the attention of the experimental investigator in the 

 domain of medicine at the present time, is the discovery of some cura- 

 live agent to be employed in that most dread and widespread disease to 

 which human beings are subject, tuberculosis. For the past fifteen 

 years some of the brightest intellects have been at work on this problem 

 Avith as much zeal and hope, albeit let us confess with more knowledge, 

 as was ever expended by the philosophers of old in the search for the 

 '' Philosopher's Stone " or the " Elixir of Life." We have, however, 

 reluctantly to admit, that the collective result of these most searching 

 and extensive investigations, while beyond doubt it has increased our 

 knowledge of the nature of the tubercle bacillus and the morbid pro- 

 cesses induced by it, has lead as yet to but little practical advance. The 

 final solution of the problem has hitherto eluded our grasp, and investi- 

 gator after investigator has, like his prototype the more dramatic 

 alchymist of the dark ages, seen the golden vision fade from his eyes 

 when the prize was thought to be won. 



The brilliant success that has crowned the efforts of experimenters 

 to produce an antitoxic serum for diphtheria and hydrophobia, and the 

 somewhat less valuable results that have been attained in tetanus, sep- 

 ticaemia, and typhoid fever, have excited the justifiable hope that a 

 similar remedy might be devised in tuberculosis. Here, however, the 

 problem has turned out to be by no means as simple as in the case of 

 the diseases just mentioned. Practical experience has shown that the 

 efficacy of the antitoxic sera hitherto prepared is in direct ratio to the 

 virulence of the diseases in which they are employed. Unlike diph- 

 theria tuberculosis is not a self-limited disease, nor does it kill by sep- 

 ticœmia. It belongs to that group of diseases to which leprosy, syphilis, 



The experiments detailed in the following paper were begun on the 

 initiative of the Hon. E. H. Bronson, of Ottawa, who has generously borne the 

 expense of the investigation, and has evinced throughout the most kindly 

 interest in the work. 



