PARTC 



CHEMOTHERAPY 



ADMINISTRATION OF SALVARSAN AND NEOSALVARSAN, 

 INTRAVENOUSLY, INTRAMUSCULARLY AND INTRA- 

 SPINALLY— AUTOSALVARSANIZED AND ARTIFICIALLY 

 SALVARSANIZED SERUM 



The relationship existing between the Wassermann reac- 

 tion and the treatment of syphilis is so closely interwoven 

 as to warrant a chapter on the subject of chemotherapy in 

 a treatise on serology. It is not our purpose to present a de- 

 tailed consideration of chemotherapeutics, but simply to 

 refer to this recent branch of scientific medicine, particularly 

 with respect to the administration of salvarsan and neosal- 

 varsan. 



It is generally conceded, all things being equal, that im- 

 munotherapy, theoretically, is superior and should take pre- 

 cedence to chemotherapy. The reason for this is at once 

 apparent, due to the fact that the former is parasitotropic 

 and not at the same time organotropic. Unfortunately bi- 

 ologic therapeusis has not been applicable to syphilis, con- 

 sequently the treatment of this disease devolved upon drugs 

 or chemicals, some of which, in spite of the time required to 

 effect cure, have come to be known as " specific," for example 

 mercury. 



HisTOEY OF Salvarsan and Neosalvarsan 



Ehrlich, attracted by the alleged value of atoxyl in 

 trypanosomiasis, and mindful of the possibility of increas- 

 ing the antiseptic effect of drugs, at the same time diminish- 

 318 



