INDICATIONS AND CONTRA-INDICATIONS 251 



of sensitization from it, or severe collapse following after repeated 

 doses. It has been suggested that this is due to the fact that the 

 milk is boiled and so dedifferentiated. Hecht made intracutaneous 

 injections of milk in patients injected previously with milk and also 

 in noninjected patients. There was no difference in the skin response, 

 nor was he able to demonstrate milk antibodies. 



When heterobacteriotherapy was first introduced and the dosage 

 and the results were very uncertain, deaths incident to the injec- 

 tions, such as were reported by Eggerth, Kraus and Mazza, Boral, 

 v. Reuss and others, were perhaps excusable. Large doses of typhoid 

 vaccines were used because of the impression that such amounts were 

 essential to elicit the reaction. With further experience such disasters 

 have been eliminated and less violent methods have come into use 

 whenever the patient is not in good condition. Untoward results can 

 no longer be attributed to a fault in the method of therapy but to the 

 judgment of the physician. 



Needless to say, nonspecific therapy does require judgment, care- 

 ful attention and bedside study on the part of the physician, perhaps 

 in greater measure than any other therapeutic procedure. It should 

 never be a routine; to be useful it must be an individualized therapy, 

 with dosage and preparation and time of application varied to the dis- 

 ease, its intensity, its duration and the resistance of the patient. 

 So used, nonspecific therapy should prove to be one of our most use- 

 ful measures both in acute infectious diseases and chronic inflamma- 

 tory lesions. 



