CHEMOTHERAPY IN BACTERIAL INFECTIONS 277 



every attempt should here be made to destroy the parasites with 

 a single dose, while the therapia fractionata, which is to a certain 

 extent permissible in syphilis, is less apt to be successful. 



CHEMOTHERAPY IN BACTERIAL INFECTIONS 



While the application of the new science of chemotherapy to the 

 study of protozoan infections has thus led to most brilliant results 

 within the few years of its existence, the thought naturally suggests 

 itself whether some of the bacterial infections also may not be amen- 

 able to medicinal treatment upon this basis. A priori, of course, 

 this possibility exists, but it is noteworthy that the only diseases in 

 which a specific cure could be effected in the olden days of medicine 

 were of protozoan origin, i. e., malaria and syphilis, and it is to be 

 feared that the problems are much more complicated in the bacterial 

 infections. There is some evidence to show, however, that here 

 also a new era of treatment may be expected to dawn in the near 

 future and that modern pharmacology when approached from the 

 standpoint of general biology may succeed in accomplishing what 

 the pharmacology of the olden days failed to do. A more intimate 

 knowledge of cell metabolism and above all of cell nutrition will 

 unquestionably carry with it the solution of the problem of bacterial 

 infections. At this place I would only briefly refer to the recent 

 advances in the chemotherapy of pneumococcus infections. Lamar 

 has thus shown in the animal experiment that while a corresponding 

 immune serum is incapable of preventing the development of pneu- 

 mococcus meningitis when introduced subdurally by itself, a mixture 

 of sodium oleate, immune serum and boric acid regularly exerted 

 a more powerful influence than the immune serum alone, and not 

 only prevented the occurrence of infection, but also, when adminis- 

 tered separately, arrested the progress of an actually established 

 infection, and led, often, to the enduring and perfect recovery of 

 the animal. 



On the basis that a certain parallelism in their biological behavior 

 exists between trypanosomes and pneumococci, and that certain 

 quinine derivatives were found to have a trypanocidal effect, Morgen- 

 roth and his collaborators undertook corresponding studies in animal 

 infections with the pneumococcus. As a result of their investiga- 



