CHAPTER VII 



THE PROTECTIVE ELEMENTS OF THE 

 BLOOD, WHICH PROTECT THE ANIMAL 

 BODY FROM PATHOGENIC BACTERIA 



The science of bacteriology has clearly demonstrated that 

 by far the largest majority of organic diseases from which 

 animals suffer are due to the direct or indirect influences of 

 specific bacteria. To be convinced of this we only require 

 to look through the long roll of bacteria which have been 

 isolated and are capable of producing disease. And, 

 considering the serious ravages that these bacteria have 

 produced in the past, can it be wondered at that the 

 resources of thinking men have been strained to the utmost 

 to find some means of checking their destructive processes? 

 In evolving a scheme likely to satisfactorily fulfil its 

 intended purpose — namely, the treatment of disease — various 

 methods have been adopted, but the one which concerns 

 us here — i.e., sero- vaccine therapy — has laid open a vast 

 field for research, and offers to those who pursue its 

 subtle courses rich rewards and unthought-of possi- 

 bilities. To the general practitioner his everyday occupa- 

 tion is a prophylactic and curative one ; and whatever 

 line of thought or school of teaching he follows, to be 

 successful he must always be subservient to Nature, and 

 the more he keeps in touch with Nature and her methods, 

 and in his healing art follows her example and emulates 

 her ways, the more certain will be his successes. Many 

 centuries ago the ancients noticed that one attack of a 

 specific disease conferred upon the subject a certain protec- 

 tion against further infection, and it appears the first attempt 

 to utilize this protective principle came from the East, 



