7i8 



NA TURE 



[June 3, 1922 



Already a large number of substances have been used 

 as non-specific agents ; in many cases^ of course, these 

 remedies were employed long before any explanation 

 of their action had been formulated on the above lines. 

 Of the long list of agents given by Petersen only a few 

 can be mentioned. 



First comes counter-irritation by means of thermo- 

 cautery, seton, blisters, etc. Each of these procedures 

 has for object the production of a focus of inflammatory 

 exudation, suppuration, or necrosis ; the absorption 

 of the pathological exudates must lead to a tissue 

 stimulation similar to that v/hich follows more modern 

 non-specific injections. Our non-specific therapy is 

 thus but part and parcel of this older practice of counter- 

 irritation. 



Normal animal sera have been used, — horse, beef, 

 goat, sheep, chicken, and other sera ; these were first 

 injected subcutaneously, and in more recent years 

 into a vein ; as much as 250 c.c. of beef serum have 

 been given in anthrax without injury. Antibacterial 

 sera and antitoxins have been widely used, — diphtheria 

 and tetanus antitoxin, antistreptococcic, antipneumo- 

 coccic, antidysenteric serum, etc. ; — as remedies, that 

 is, not in the homologous diseases, but in other morbid 

 conditions, e.g. diphtheria antitoxin against strepto- 

 coccus infection, tuberculosis, lupus, etc. The numer- 

 ous vaccines, prepared in the first place as specific 

 agents, — typhoid, dysentery, streptococcal, pneumo- 

 coccal, influenza vaccines, — have also been used with 

 a non-specific object. 



Various native proteins have been given, — solution of 

 egg albumen and serum albumen injected subcutane- 

 ously, milk by intramuscular injection, casein, gelatin ; 

 of protein split products, proteoses (albumoses) pre- 

 pared from different proteins sometimes give a very 

 prompt and satisfactory reaction. The enzyme treat- 

 ment of cancer, exploited some years ago, consisted in 

 the subcutaneous injection of a trypsin solution ; a 

 general reaction, — chill, sweating, and rise of tempera- 

 ture, — followed the injection, and the patient would 

 have several days of comparative comfort. 



Colloidal metals constitute another group of remedies; 

 these are active catalytic agents, and it is supposed 

 that they act therapeutically in virtue of this property 

 as inorganic ferments ; they whip up the organism, 

 which responds, if response is possible, by producing 



more leucocytes. A number of colloidal metals have 

 been prepared for therapeutic employment ; the 

 colloidal silver preparations have been in use longest, 

 but arsenic, zinc, gold, manganese, iron, mercury, 

 and other metals, as well as sulphur and iodine, have 

 been employed with varying success in septic conditions, 

 endocarditis, rheumatism, trench fever, etc. 



The use of light, Rontgen rays, and radium must 

 also be mentioned. These agents first stimulate tissue 

 cells, and later, with prolonged exposure, cause their 

 death. In both cases substances enter the blood 

 stream which produce a general reaction ; this may be 

 mild, or accompanied by severe fever. After moderate 

 reactions of this type, if the patient is in good condition 

 and able to respond, improvement of appetite, nutri- 

 tion, and general well-being may set in, just as after 

 other non-specific agents. Here, then, we have at 

 least a partial explanation of the effect of heliotherapy 

 in tuberculosis, as used, for example, at Leysin in 

 Switzerland, of which the public has heard much in 

 the last few months. 



About half of Dr. Petersen's book is occupied with 

 an account of the methods used and the results obtained 

 in the numerous diseases for which non-specific therapy 

 has been tried. The last chapter, on indications and 

 contra-indications, gives much useful advice. We 

 are reminded that the method can only be applied 

 intelligently if we recognise that by it all the forces 

 of cellular and humoral resistance are for a short period 

 of time keyed to the highest pitch ; stimulation of 

 this kind is useless when the cells of the body are 

 profoundly fatigued, and hence injections must be 

 given early in the course of the disease. But " the 

 non-specific method of treatment should under no 

 circumstances be considered as a rival or a substitute 

 for the proven specific measures that we have at our 

 command. That a non-specific factor is at times and 

 possibly often associated with the specific reaction 

 may be true, the more reason that both should be 

 studied and both utilised in their proper time and 

 place." 



The bibliography runs to no less than fifty pages, 

 and must, one would think, be complete up to date. 

 The book as a whole forms an interesting, convenient, 

 and comprehensive account of a recent development 

 of medical thought and practice. 



The Solvay Institute of Chemistry. 



THE first meeting of the " Institut International de 

 Chimie Solvay " was held in Brussels on April 

 20-27, under the presidency of Sir William Pope. It 

 will be remembered that before the war M. Ernest 

 Solvay set aside a capital sum to be expended in the 

 course of thirty years by the International Institute of 

 Physics, and that meetings under the auspices of this 

 Institute have been held in Brussels both before and 

 since the war. More recently M. Solvay has set aside 

 a further capital sum of one million francs, also to be 

 expended in thirty years, for the promotion of the 

 science of chemistry. 



The meetings of the Institute are attended by dele- 

 gates from different countries, the number being limited 

 to about thirty, so that the discussions may be as 



NO. 2744, VOL. 109] 



free and as informal as possible. The recent meeting 

 was devoted to the consideration of a number of those 

 questions which affect the foundations of modern 

 chemistry, and its programme included the presentation 

 of papers on isotopes, by Soddy, by Aston, and by 

 Perrin and Urbain ; on X-ray analysis and molecular 

 structure, by W. H. Bragg ; on the electronic theory 

 of valency, by Mauguin ; on optical activity, by Pope 

 and by Lowry ; and on chemical mobility, by Job. 



In connection with the papers on isotopes, consider- 

 able discussion was aroused as to the possibility of two 

 dissimilar arrangements of planetary electrons around 

 the same type of nucleus. The possibility of such an 

 isomerism in the external domain of the atom was 

 conceded, although at present only as a hypothesis ; 



