THE SCIENCE AND ART OF PROTEAL THERAPY 143 



to make the old, familiar tonic remedies notably iron and 

 arsenic in their old method of administration, obsolete. 



In making this suggestion, I would not have it understood 

 that I expect to see iron, arsenic, and other old friends of this 

 category disappear at once from the armamentarium of the 

 physician. Proteal remedies will not altogether displace these 

 old friends any more than salvarsan has altogether displaced 

 mercury. It is not to be expected that any one type of medica- 

 tion will be applicable to any and every type of case, even where 

 there are seemingly similar maladjustments of functioning. Yet 

 I reaffirm the conviction that present experience justifies the 

 belief that the tonic remedies that have been almost the sole 

 reliance of the physician in anaemias associated with disturbed 

 protein metabolism (and hence associated with most of the 

 disorders of middle life and old age) are rendered obsolescent 

 by the advent of the new method. 



I am aware that such an opinion must seem heretical, perhaps 

 even fanatical. Yet I express and reaffirm it calmly and with 

 confidence based on the observation of a series of cases large 

 enough, and varied enough, in my opinion, to be dependable. 



It will be understood that the opinion just expressed is based 

 on personal, first-hand observation both clinical and microscopi- 

 cal. The work with which we are dealing is pioneer work. So 

 far as I am aware, no one but myself and my immediate asso- 

 ciates have hitherto dealt extensively with non-specific vegetable 

 proteins as such, either in laboratory or clinic, as therapeutic 

 agents for hypodermic administration. It is true that several 

 thousand physicians have administered the original proteal ex- 

 tract, and I have profited by their clinical experience; but for 

 the most part the physicians have administered the remedy em- 

 pirically in accordance with my directions, and comparatively 

 few of them have watched the blood count. Those who have 

 done so, however, have reported observations, confirming in the 

 most substantial manner the original studies with which the 

 present volume is largely concerned. 



Here, for example, is a letter that chances to come to hand the 

 morning of the present writing, from a prominent physician in 

 a neighboring city who says ; 



"I have now used the Proteal No. 37 for twelve days and have 

 reached the dose of 15 minims without any local or general reac- 

 tion. I have increased the dose to 17 minims and will of course 

 watch for reaction. The only constitutional change thus far has 

 been a true increase in the mononuclear leucocytes with a de- 

 crease of the small lymphocytes ; also an increase in the red blood 

 cell count." 



