CHEMOTHERAPY IN MALIGNANT DISEASE 887 



tions of a 2 per cent, solution of the hydrochloric! and the hourly instil- 

 lation of a few drops of a 1 per cent, solution into the conjunctival sac. 

 In the treatment of lobar pneumonia the consensus of opinion would 

 seem to indicate that the drug is not of proved value, and particularly 

 must care be exercised in the dosage to avoid the amblyopia which 

 has been reported by a number of investigators. The general statement 

 is made that there is but "a small interval between the therapeutic and 

 the toxic dose." 



Tuberculosis. Koga 1 and Otani 2 have recently reported favorably 

 upon the treatment of tuberculosis in persons and experimental animals 

 with a substance called cyanocuprol. Takano 3 observed beneficial 

 results in the treatment of 6 cases of leprosy with the same substance. 

 Lewis 4 has worked extensively with new synthetic compounds largely 

 by tests in vitro; De Witt, 5 in summarizing the results of chemothera- 

 peutic studies in tuberculosis, concludes that the results so far with 

 compounds of iodin, arsenic, copper, gold, mercury, and most of the 

 dyes have been in the main negative. 



It is to be hoped, therefore, that further researches will result in the 

 discovery of substances that have a marked bactericidal action and 

 that are yet but slightly, if at all, toxic for the body cells, that is, sub- 

 stances in which bacteriotropism greatly exceeds organotropism. It 

 would appear that this discovery is possible and probable, but it can 

 be accomplished only as the result of persistent and prolonged research. 

 Probably the most wonderful discovery possible in medicine would be a 

 specific remedy for tuberculosis, and this may be within the realms of 

 chemotherapy. 



CHEMOTHERAPY IN MALIGNANT DISEASE 



Brief mention may be made of certain recent advances that have 

 been made in the experimental chemotherapy of cancer in the rat and 

 mouse. While the pathogenesis of malignant disease is still unknown, 

 specific therapeutic measures of this kind have been undertaken on the 

 assumption that the cancer-cell is different from the normal cell from 

 which it originated, and that certain substances will show a selective 

 affinity for them; in other words, that specificity may be present among 



1 Jour. Exper. Med., 1916, xxiv, 107 and 149. 



2 Jour. Exper. Med., 1916, xxiv, 187. 



3 Jour. Exper. Med., 1916, xxiv, 207. 



4 Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp., 1917, xxviii, 120. 



5 Jour. Lab. and Clin. Med., 1916, 1, 677. 



