288 BACTERIOLOGY. 



ing properties from those with none, and to 

 produce new substances among which curative 

 bodies are to be found. If in these investiga- 

 tions the deplorable error of polypragmaty, or 

 great activity in prescriptions, is avoided, and 

 science and medicine are allowed time for test- 

 ing the value of these chemical substances, 

 then certainly nothing can be said against the 

 search for " specific curatives " of disease. 

 Unfortunately many errors have been caused 

 in these latter days by a superfluity of recom- 

 mendations of untried, really valueless and 

 often dangerous remedies, the announcements 

 of which are a source of ridicule to many 

 clinics. Such excesses should not, how- 

 ever, blind us to the theoretically sound basis 

 for investigations of this sort,, namely, that 

 chemical substances may be produced analy- 

 tically or synthetically which are available as 

 curatives or antiseptics against disease. The 

 real foundation for such a belief is easily seen 

 to be the existence of chemical bodies, often 

 very complex, which present, by virtue of 

 their molecular composition, definite possibil- 

 ities of motion related to analogous conditions 

 in living things. They impinge upon the 

 energetical possibilities of these living things 

 in such a way as to set free energy, whether 

 they do this by acting as stimuli to the man 



