302 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



parable to those found in man. He soon learned that he could 

 obtain a toxin from his broth cultures which produced a 

 necrosis of muscle when injected into the pigeons, and that 

 he could produce an anti-toxin by appropriate methods of 

 immunization of larger animals with the toxin, and that this 

 new found anti-toxin would neutralize the toxin both in test 

 tube and in the body of the pigeon. The hope that was raised 

 by this discovery that a cure for gas gangrene had been found 

 was short lived, for it soon became evident that the bacillus 

 of Welch was only one of many organisms capable of producing 

 the disease, and that further anti-toxins must be prepared 

 before much could be done. At the close of the war it had 

 become possible to produce several other anti-toxins by using 

 the same methods which had been elaborated by Bull, and the 

 commercial manufacturers were ready to furnish a polyvalent 

 anti-gas gangrene serum. The plans called for a single serum, 

 made either from one horse, or by mixing the sera from several 

 horses, which would contain anti-toxin for the tetanus bacillus, 

 and the three principal gas producing anaerobes. Anti-toxic 

 serum against tetanus and B. welchi had already been manu- 

 factured in considerable quantity and was available for use 

 during the offensive in the Argonne. Fortunately the Armis- 

 tice intervened and no further research, because of war wounds, 

 was necessary. 



Although gas gangrene is present from time to time in civil 

 practice, particularly in wounds due to industrial accidents, it 

 has never been a common condition. In the past, unless com- 

 plete surgical treatment was given early, the cases were quite 

 hopeless. The experiences of the war have made it possible, 

 therefore, to make provision for these sporadic cases, which, 

 in total numbers, are quite considerable, although a single 

 physician rarely sees many of them. 



PNEUMONIA 



The history of the diseases of the lung is as old as anything 

 in human medicine, and yet much less progress has been made 



