SALVARSAN IN NON-SYPHILITIC MALADIES 261 



Brilliant results have been reported by many observers in the treat- 

 ment of relapsing fever, where a single injection suffices to cause 

 the parasites to disappear and to effect a lasting cure. Equally 

 favorable results have been obtained in frambesia which plays a 

 more important role among the plantation workers of Surinam than 

 even syphilis. Koch and Flu report that of 900 cases which had thus 

 been treated only three developed a relapse. Quite important, 

 further, is the observation of Joannides that bilharziasis can be 

 cured with a single injection. The same is reported concerning 

 the effect of the treatment on aleppo boil, while it seems to be of 

 no avail in kala-azar. Whether or not the remedy is of use in the 

 treatment of typhus fever is not yet certain; some writers report 

 favorable results, while others are less enthusiastic. In amebiasis 

 and vincent's angina, however, it seems to have a definitely favor- 

 able effect. Wonderful results have been reported in yaws. In 

 the treatment of sleeping sickness the results have been inconstant. 

 As the tendency to the development of arsenic-fast strains is much 

 greater in the case of the trypanosomes than in the spirochetes 

 every attempt should here be made to destroy the parasites with a 

 single dose, while the therapia fractionata which is to a certain 

 extent permissible in syphilis is less apt to be successful. 



While the application of the new science of chemotherapy to the 

 study of protozoan infections has thus led to most brilliant results 

 within the four years of its existence, the thought naturally suggests 

 itself whether some of the bacterial infections also may not be amen- 

 able to medicinal treatment upon this basis. A priori, of course, 

 this possibility exists, but it is noteworthy that the only diseases 

 in which a specific cure could be effected in the olden days of 

 medicine were of protozoan origin, i. e., malaria and syphilis, and it 

 is to be feared that the problems are much more complicated in the 

 bacterial infections. However, we have seen what the genius of a 

 man like Ehrlich could accomplish, and we may hope that he him- 

 self may yet blaze the way in this new direction. What is needed 

 above all, however, to insure progress along these lines is the general 

 recognition of the fact that immunological and chemotherapeutic 

 problems are primarily problems of biology, and not of medicine, 

 and that real advance will only come when we know more of the 

 problems of cell life in general. 



