THE SCIENCE AND ART OF PROTEAL THERAPY 175 



"At the time the patient began the treatment she could not 

 use her hands for any purpose and walked with difficulty. The 

 injections were administered every second day in gradually in- 

 creasing doses, beginning with ten minims. During the course 

 of the first three weeks they were increased to twenty minims. 

 At this time my attention was called by the patient to the fact 

 that she now used her hands, for the past week had practically 

 no pain, was able to button her clothing and was relieved of the 

 discomforts of the disease to a degree which she had not experi- 

 enced in years. This improvement continued so that from this 

 time on the patient practically suffered no more pain from the 

 diseased joints. The use of the hands gradually returned so 

 that she was able to write, she could use a needle for sewing 

 and, while the bony changes were in no way influenced, the 

 surrounding inflammatory swelling did decrease and she con- 

 tinued in comparative comfort." 



The observer was naturally impressed by these changes in the 

 joint conditions, and he was quite unable to explain them except 

 upon the basis of the effect produced by the protein medication. 

 Very naturally, he recalled the circumstances of this case when a 

 second patient who was suffering from a rather rapid develop- 

 ment of arthritis of similar character came under his observation. 

 This patient was a woman 36 years of age. The history of her 

 disease extended over a period of two years, the joints involved 

 being those of the hand, wrists, elbows, ankles, and knees. The 

 patient had suffered intense pain. 



The condition of this patient before treatment is described as 

 follows : 



"The bony changes were not as pronounced as in the case 

 of the first patient, but the development had been .more acute, 

 the history extending over a period of approximately two years. 

 She had already passed through the hands of several physi- 

 cians who had employed various therapeutic measures, including 

 careful dieting and observation of the gastro-intestinal tract, 

 vaccination from cultures obtained from the teeth and a further 

 course of vaccination with a mixed vaccine originated by 

 Schaefer. The combined vaccines of Schaefer had given some 

 relief, but had produced violent constitutional reactions which 

 had been unfavorable to the general health of the patient. At 

 the time of her first visit she was suffering so intensely that 

 she could not walk and was carried into my office. I could not 

 find a source of infection that seemed adequate to explain the 

 difficulty." 



This patient was at first treated by regulating of diet and atten- 

 tion to general hygiene, together with the administration of thy- 

 roid and thymus extracts. In the course of one month some mild 



