GERMS. 33 



tical application of the knowledge( ?) possessed by these 

 theorizing germ-specialists. In the following imagi- 

 nary conversation the quotations just given are used 

 by the doctor in answering the patient : 



"Doctor, what is the cause of my sickness ?" 



"In disease like yours, 'the problem differs with each 

 organism and analogic deductions are unsafe; the 

 whole subject is one of nature's tantalizing and well 

 fortified secrets/ '' 



"Doctor, do you think I will be sick long?" 



"In this case, 'the onset is due to something in the 

 germ; the duration of the attack depends upon the 

 resistance of the body; the toxins arouse glandular ac- 

 tion which should quell the attack/ '' 



"Doctor, what is your treatment?" 



"I think the disease will 'exhaust the supply of 

 pabulum in the body; the agglutinin will cause the 

 bacteria to stick together and that the alexin can de- 

 stroy them/ 3: 



"Doctor, do you use antitoxin?" 



" 'We know little of antitoxin, yet there is in the 

 body some adjustment of forces by which pathogenic 

 bacteria are antagonized and finally destroyed/ * 



"Doctor, do you consider antitoxin safe?" 



" 'Sudden death has followed antitoxin, yet in the 

 protoplasm of the toxiphoric group of cells the anti- 

 toxin is the normal constituent that binds the toxin, 

 which pre-exists in the protoplasm/ >: 



"Doctor, can't you use some other remedy in my 

 case ?" 



" 'Yes, an emulsion of brains has the power to neu- 



3 



