lOS 



DISCOVERY 



call forth the armed hosts of the body's mechanism to 

 defeat it, this artificial injection is capable of so doing, 

 and we cease — if we are fortunate — to suffer from colds in 

 the head. 



The essential feature of this method was that success was 

 believed to depend on the injection of the corpses of the 

 particular bacterium causing the disease. More than 

 that — although we might have a stock of bacteria in 

 hand identical to all appearances with those in the nose, 

 they might fail, while the actual bacteria taken as we have 

 ■described would succeed. 



This law of specificity seems uni\^ersal in the mechanism 

 of life. In the process of digestion, as in a hundred other 

 vital processes, numerous " enzymes " are employed. 

 These are mysterious substances, capable of bringing 

 about great chemical changes, but strictly confined each 

 to its own task. That is the reason why a new-born babe 

 ■cannot digest starch, however much the patent foods for 

 infant feeding may proffer it, for it lacks the specific 

 substance which turns starch into sugar. 



In considering Dr. Petersen's masterly exposition of an 

 attitude towards disease and a method of treatment 

 differing in many respects from these strictly specific 

 conceptions, it ought to be said at the outset that it implies 

 no contradiction of Sir Almroth Wright's views. Indeed, 

 Sir Almroth ^^'right is almost the only English name quoted 

 in a remarkably complete bibliography, in connection 

 with the evolution of the modern non-specific method. 

 This method is only of some six years' birth ; it is widely 

 known in Germany and America, somewhat less so in 

 France and Italy, and very little considered as yet in 

 this country. It is an amplification rather than a 

 refutation of the specific theory of resistance to disease. 



In the process of this new therapy, a large variety of 

 substances are injected into the skin or blood-stream. 

 A casual glance at a hst of them might lead to a fear 

 that the doctor had mistaken the kitchen cupboard for the 

 medicine chest, for yeast, milk, eggs, cheese, and gelatin 

 feature prominently. But there is a common basis for 

 their injection ; they all contain a complex chemical com- 

 pound known as Protein. It has long been known that 

 when protein is injected into the blood-stream, enzj-mes, 

 to which we have alluded above, are produced which 

 digest or destroy it. The injection of protein is always 

 injurious in itself, since it sends up the temperature and 

 causes many disagreeable symptoms. Bacteria them- 

 selves consist of protein ; when they die they break up 

 into poisonous substances, and in their life they excrete 

 poisons derived from proteins, and the body in which they 

 live produces similar poisons on account of their presence. 

 One of the lines on which the body counteracts their evil 

 influences is by the production of enzjTnes which destroy 

 protein and the substances derived from it. 



So when milk or egg is injected, it is argued that an 

 immense number of enzymes are produced, capable not 

 only of splitting up milk or egg, but also bacteria and 

 their products. At the same time we get the temperature 

 rise and the other symptoms, but these are a small price 

 to pay for the destruction of the bacteria. 



We might ask what advantage it is to inject the proteins 



of milk, when we might inject the protein of the bacterium 

 itself. If it be proved that better results follow the milk 

 injection, the question is of only theoretical interest. 

 Moreover, the method is applicable, according to the 

 author, in cases where the bacterium is unknown. But the 

 answer to the question appears to be that, whereas on 

 injecting the bacterium only these enzymes, which digest 

 the bacterium and its products, are produced by the body, 

 the milk injection is followed by the production, among 

 others, of enzymes which digest the poisonous products 

 of the body's own abnormal workings. But here we are 

 admittedly on very uncertain ground, and further 

 investigation is required. 



Such is the method and its theoretical basis. There is 

 no space here for a re\'iew of the results of experience which 

 Dr. Petersen brings together in this book. Some criticisms 

 at once occur to us — for example, on p. 156, a death- 

 rate of 15 per cent, is noted in typhoid fever when 

 treated on these lines, and in contemporary textbooks of 

 medicine a mortality of from 5 to 20 per cent is quoted 

 as normal with conventional treatment. In fairness it 

 should be added that on p. 158, a series of 350 cases 

 shows a mortalitv of onlv J- per cent. ; but as a Roland to 

 his Oliver we can quote figures from one ward in a London 

 hospital, where conventional treatment shows a mortahty 

 of o per cent, in 57 cases. Again, the most remarkable 

 cures are reported in the case of chronic joint affections, 

 which are notoriously the chosen sphere of every new 

 therapeutic method from faith-healing to bone-setting — 

 they appear to \-ield to a limitless variety of treatment 

 for a time. 



It should be mentioned, also, that the injection of protein 

 is only one side of a scheme of treatment which aims 

 throughout at producing a general reaction to a disease, 

 and which covers a large field, including X-ray treatment 

 and the old-fashioned mustard blister. 



But, when every possible criticism has been brought 

 forward and due allowance made for the enthusiasm of a 

 prominent exponent of the method, this book remains 

 a most valuable contribution to our knowledge of the 

 problems of disease and immunity, and as a book of refer- 

 ence should prove invaluable to the specialist. And if the 

 value of the method be established, medicine would be rid 

 of much of that atmosphere of pessimism and mere 

 academic classification which broods over it to-day. 



R. J. V. P. 



General Astronomy. By H. Spencer Jones, M.A., B.Sc. 

 (Edward Arnold & Co., 21s.) 



The Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Green- 

 wich, has succeeded in \\Titing the best introduction to I 

 astronomy in English. There has been a need for such a ' 

 book, for we have endured too long successive editions of 

 the great textbooks of the past with their lack of fresh- 

 ness and, despite the labours of revising editors, their ' 

 complement of error. Now comes this book giving a I 

 reader a tolerably complete view of the present state of \ 

 astronomy, an account at once lucid and scientifi: from 

 which the higher mathematics have been entirely excluded. < 



