ARTIFICIALLY PRODUCED IMMUNITY. 763 



tage. It seems to us, therefore, that we can legitimately con- 

 clude that: 



6. The use of antitoxic serum or of the various sera intro- 

 duced is only indicated in morbid processes characterized by a de- 

 ficiency of trypsin. 



In all other pathological conditions drugs are productive 

 of better effects, because these can be scientifically controlled. 



ARTIFICIALLY PRODUCED IMMUNITY. 



The foregoing deduction seems to us to embody a far- 

 reaching meaning in connection with the subject which is now 

 to claim our attention. If the entire domain of immunity is 

 scrutinized, it will become apparent that the effects of all 

 inoculations are similar: they all react more or less promptly 

 and more or less vigorously upon the adrenal system; and 

 upon the character of this stimulation depends the duration of 

 degree of the protection conferred upon the inoculate^ sub- 

 ject. Here we no longer have as active factors benign sera of 

 varying strengths which require two complementary bodies in 

 joint action to manifest their beneficial activity; we are deal- 

 ing with toxalbumins, far more active than many of the more 

 potent alkaloids of our pharmacopoeia, but which present the 

 same physiological attributes as alkaloids and all drugs and 

 toxins. 



Still, a distinction asserts itself in this connection, which 

 will serve to give each of the forms of immunity artificially 

 produced its true physiological bearing. Indeed, we' must not 

 lose sight of the fact that there is a difference of vast practical 

 importance between the action of a dose of toxins introduced 

 artificially into the blood-stream and the manner in which a 

 disease is developed in the organism either through the en- 

 trance of pathogenic germs directly into the blood or, as in 

 diphtheria and tetanus, through the intermediary of a periph- 

 eral focus of these germs. Whether these myriads of toxin 

 laboratories be in the blood or outside of it matters little as 

 long as their products enter the blood. Disease means the in- 

 troduction of these sources of toxins, which rapidly increase in 

 number in blood devoid of trypsin, while artificial immuniza- 



