SERUM THERAPY 89 



past. With the single exception of Ehrlich's "606" in 

 the treatment of syphilis, it may be said that every ad- 

 vance that has been made in the conquest of disease 

 has been along the line of serum therapy, and the hope 

 of the future certainly seems to lie within its magic 

 realm. And who that has watched the dark and grue- 

 some membrane spreading like a pall across the throat 

 of an innocent child, shrivel, and shrink and loose its 

 tenacious hold, that has felt the harried pulse drop into 

 peaceful rhythm, and seen the haunted look leave the 

 eyes of one of these little sufferers, but has felt the magic 

 of its power, has felt that here, among all its vast uncer- 

 tainties, medicine reigned secure. 



ANTITOXIN 



The principle upon which the antitoxin treatment of 

 disease depends is the production within the body of 

 an animal affected with disease of certain antibodies 

 which combine chemically with the toxins of the dis- 

 ease, rendering them inert and harmless, hence the term 

 antitoxin. Upon the number and activity of the anti- 

 bodies present in any particular case depends the out- 

 come of the disease, whether recovery or death, and it is 

 the province of this particular form of serum therapy 

 to assist nature and increase the antibodies by supplying 

 them from an outside source, such outside source being 

 usually the horse, in which they have been cultivated 

 by the systematic injection of increasing doses of the 



