DISCOVERY OF PROTEIN PRINCIPLE IN THERAPEUTICS 115 



It is fair to add that I myself was not prepared to demon- 

 strate at the time when this paper was published that there might 

 not be other agents, for example, chlorophyll, in the extract that 

 had a share in the therapeutic action. The demonstration that 

 the protein alone was the effective agent was the work of later 

 months, to be narrated in a moment. But the discovery of the 

 protein principle, and the interpretation of its action in the light 

 of the Proteomorphic theory, was clearly revealed in this paper 

 of October 2, 1915. My subsequent work was to elaborate and 

 demonstrate the principle, but in no wise to change its essen- 

 tials as presented at this time. There is reason to believe that 

 the paper found a responsive audience witness the work in 

 non-specific protein therapy that a few months later began to 

 attract attention in the medical journals. 



Meantime I had made a statistical study of the results of the 

 use of the vegetable extract in the treatment of cases of inop- 

 erable cancer the only cases to which it was at first applied. 

 The article in which I summarized the result of this study ap- 

 peared in the New York Medical Journal of November 13, 1915. 

 A summary of the results will be presented elsewhere. For the 

 moment our chief concern is with the theoretical aspects of 

 the subject rather than with the clinical details. Suffice it that 

 the clinical experience, statistically summarized, overwhelmingly 

 sustained the belief that the bodily response, whether or not of 

 corpuscular origin, was of a nature to antagonize the cancer 

 cells, and favorably to influence the general conditions of the 

 patient, as evidenced by decrease or cessation of pain in a large 

 proportion of cases ; modification or annulment of malodor ; im- 

 proved appetite, sleep, and sense of well being; and, in a sur- 

 prisingly large percentage of cases, actual regression of the can- 

 cer mass itself. 



All these clinical changes found explanation, according to my 

 belief, in the modified numbers and enhanced enzymic activ- 

 ities of the blood corpuscles, along the lines of the Proteomor- 

 phic Theory. This opinion found support in the elaborate studies 

 of the corpuscles, in the counting chamber and on the smear, 

 which were carried out by me personally, or under my direct 

 supervision, in the ensuing months. 



These studies of the blood were undertaken without prejudice 

 or preconception. The earlier counts, numerical and differential, 

 were made under my direction, to be sure, but by an assistant 

 who had scant knowledge, or perhaps no knowledge at all, of 

 the Proteomorphic Theory, and who made and recorded obser- 

 vations automatically, without attempting to classify or sum- 

 marize them or to draw conclusions. When these observations 

 were tabulated by me, they at once revealed unequivocally cer- 



