286 BACTERIOLOGY. 



If we keep this fact always before our eyes 

 and do not fall straightway into the pit of 

 specificity, as of late unfortunately many phy- 

 sicians (and among bacteriologists Behring) 

 have done, the idea of a " specific " curative 

 can do no harm, since by the expression we 

 mean merely a closer degree of mutual rela- 

 tionship and use it simply as a convenient 

 paraphrase. 



From clinical and experimental evidence I 

 draw simply the following conclusion : there 

 are chemical substances that can cure disease. 

 We need not abandon the hope of finding new 

 substances which, in this strictly limited 

 sense, act " specifically, " and we may at least 

 cherish the hope that such remedies will re- 

 move the cause of disease not by their poison- 

 ous action, that is by killing bacteria and other 

 parasites, but by acting as stimuli to the cells 

 of the human organism and effecting a cure 

 by " specifically " stimulating the cells set 

 apart for defence. 



In those diseases due primarily to the toxic 

 action of bacteria the poison formed might 

 presumably be rendered harmless by means 

 of antidotes or innocuous remedies which serve 

 either to paralyze or neutralize or hinder the 

 action of the poison. The occurrence of a true 

 neutralization of organic poisons of the kind 



