Botanic Remedies 235 



tion of vital stimulation and raising the opsonic 

 index to mixed or secondary infections. The mints, 

 Labiatae (mentha, thymus, etc.), and the Com- 

 positae (echinacea, inula, etc.), seem to me to be 

 somewhat promising in this direction, as do the 

 Coniferae. As Thiosinamine and Fibrolysin, q. v., 

 are derived from mustard, the Brassica alba (white 

 mustard) in Plantex and Autolysin may be a promi- 

 nent factor in their effects upon neoplasms. 



These proteomorphic theories are plausible, but 

 we should not stress them. In an article on vaccine 

 therapy in The Jour. Amer. Med. Ass'n., Jan. 20, 

 1917, David John Davis argues for the theory of 

 the nonspecific effects of bacterial vaccines, con- 

 tending that proteins, albumoses, serum lipoids, 

 colloids, etc. (animal or vegetable proteins), are 

 more important than any assumed specific agent 

 in the vaccine; and he suggests that a sterile pure 

 chemical preparation of some proteose which can 

 be carefully standardized may be the coming "vac- 

 cine." This is rather revolutionary, and it may 

 open up a wide field for the subcutaneous and 

 intravenous use of plant extracts, not only in cancer 

 but in other affections. 



Erwin F. Smith, "Studies on the Crown Gall of 

 Plants: Its Relation to Human Cancer," in The 

 Jour, of Cancer Research, April, 1916, traces a re- 

 markable similarity between human cancer and 

 plant cancer, or crown gall. The hypothesis is 

 offered by a gentleman who is not yet prepared to 

 back up his theory, in a letter to me, that multi- 

 cellular plants protect themselves from invasion or 

 destruction by unicellular plants (plant cancer, 

 etc.) by developing protective enzymes or other 



