IMMUNIZING MEDICATION. 775 



to cause hypoleucocytosis, correspondingly weakens the func- 

 tional energy of the heart, and two cardinal factors thus unite 

 in rendering the lungs vulnerable to pathogenic elements. As 

 soon as the tubercle bacillus is admitted, it becomes an addi- 

 tional source of adrenal insufficiency, owing to the toxins it 

 generates, and which react upon the anterior pituitary body 

 precisely as would any other equally virulent poison. 



All these features bear with equal force upon the intestinal 

 infection by this pathogenic micro-organism, for we must not 

 overlook the fact that trypsin is also secreted into the intestine 

 by the pancreas. If our views are sound, therefore, Koch is not 

 sustained when he says that human beings are not susceptible 

 to bovine tuberculosis; still, this is only true when the intes- 

 tinal protective functions, including the production of trypsin, 

 are impaired through adrenal insufficiency. On the other hand, 

 his views are sustained when perfectly protected human beings, 

 i.e., subjects possessed of an adrenal system in full functional 

 activity, form the basis of his deductions. 



The value of immunizing medication seems to us to cover 

 a vast field of usefulness in this connection. The family his- 

 tory, and many other features considered as etiological factors 

 of tuberculosis, afford landmarks for the adoption of preventive 

 medication long before the morbid process has had time to 

 develop, long, indeed, before infection can have occurred. 

 During adolescence, for example, particularly when the family 

 history is unfavorable, medication calculated to raise or de- 

 velop the functional activity of the adrenal system to a high 

 standard, must, in the light of the views submitted, not only 

 prevent the development of pulmonary or any other form of 

 tuberculosis, but arrest it in its earlier stages. 



Pneumonia, the mortality of which remains the same not- 

 withstanding the material improvement in that of phthisis, does 

 not present the characteristics of disease susceptible to preven- 

 tion. Indeed, lobar pneumonia, for instance, seems to us to 

 exemplify a process wherein death occurs owing to excessive 

 functional activity of the adrenal system. This is shown espe- 

 cially by the hyperleucocytosis, the high fever, the flushed face, 

 the high temperature, the bounding pulse, etc. The conception 

 is furthermore sustained by the remarkable results (a 2.64-per- 



