114 THE PROTEOMORPHIC THEORY AND THE NEW MEDICINE 



tion of the exact manner of action of a remedy, the introduction 

 of which, I believe, constitutes the inauguration of a method 

 that must in future rank with serum therapy and vaccine therapy 

 if, indeed, it does not altogether outstrip or totally supplant 

 both these relatively new additions to the equipment of the prac- 

 tical physician." 



Such a view as this, if presented without both theoretical and 

 clinical backing, must have seemed heretical. It carried the 

 clear implication that a non-specific protein might serve as an 

 antigen capable of decompounding proteins of many types, in- 

 cluding the bodies of various pathogenic bacteria and various 

 types of "malignant" cells. 



The suggestion ran counter to the dominant medical thought 

 of the moment. The familiar facts regarding diphtheria anti- 

 toxin, Wright's anti-typhoid vaccine and allied vaccines, and 

 Ehrlich's salvarsan (to mention typical examples of three new 

 types of medication) had revived in the mind of the profession 

 the old hope that specific medication was to give final answer 

 to all therapeutic problems. In the cancer field, as well as in 

 the field of bacteriology, recent effort had nearly all been directed 

 along the lines either of specific antigens or of remedies having 

 elective affinity for particular cells. Various attempts to develop 

 a cancer anti-serum ; Vaughan's use of residual products of the 

 cancer cell, and Hodenpyl's use of ascitic fluid of a cancer sub- 

 ject were typical illustrations of one method; and the colloidal 

 copper treatment of Leo Loeb and selenium experiments of Ehr- 

 lich and Wassermann were illustrations of others. 



It may fairly be said that most workers in the field were so 

 thoroughly imbued with the idea of specific therapy as to cause 

 them to look askance at any suggestion of a more general 

 method. 



Perhaps I cannot better illustrate this than by stating that 

 among the medical men who were most closely concerned with 

 the introduction of the vegetable extract treatment, there were 

 those who were inclined to believe that the extract would be 

 found to contain something having a selective affinity for can- 

 cer cells, and hence falling within the scope of specific medica- 

 tion. The thought of a magical "vitamine" was at least vaguely 

 in their minds. Like the users of Dr. Gwyer's "X-substance," 

 which produced analogous results, they were mystified by the 

 seeming complexity of the agent empirically used. These men 

 looked with frank scepticism on the theoretical interpretation 

 of the action of the remedy that I presented in the paper of 

 October 2, 1915, and did not for some time thereafter accept 

 the view that a general principle of protein antagonism had been 

 evoked. 



