CAUSES OF DISEASE. 31 



opposites, it is obvious that the earher they are used, 

 he more beneficial and potent will they prove in treat- 

 ig disease. It is their late use after great tissue de- 

 riTuction has occurred, that is responsible for failure. 

 '41 an immune person or animal, antibodies are found 

 troughout the body, in largest quantity in the blood. 

 And it is such blood-serum, separated from the other 

 elements of the blood, which is the antitoxin of world- 

 wide fame. Antitoxin (antibody) not only causes no 

 reactions when injected into a patient — the animal 

 from which it was obtained suffered these — but it 

 causes the symptoms due to the body's efforts to produce 

 it on its own account to at once abate. Moreover, if 

 an amount sufficient to neutralize all floating poison is 

 injected, the symptoms due to the action of this are 

 also eliminated. Therefore, there only remain such 

 disturbances as are inevitable when tissues are destroyed 

 and must needs be re-formed. And here again are seen 

 .ne wonderful workings of nature. In those diseases 

 for which we have specifics, the body-forces play just 

 as important a role as the specifics; specifics neutralize 

 the bacteria and their toxins, but they cannot restore 

 to normal the tissues which these agents have injured, 

 nor the functions of organs which they have im- 

 paired. Repair is a function of the organism which 

 may be assisted but never supplanted. The part 

 played by the body in this respect in infectious diseases 

 is analogous to that which it plays in surgery. The 



