lOO Termination of Disease. 



Tcnniiiation in recovery is accomplished through the repara- 

 tive powers natural to the economy. The body is possessed of a 

 variety of regulative mechanisms, whereby the influence of harm- 

 ful agencies is neutralized, the loss of chemical substances and 

 tissues is repaired, and noxious materials are eliminated from the 

 system. Such processes may in a compensatory fashion correct 

 this or that fault, as by the discharge of toxic matter from the 

 stomach or intestines, the removal of the products of fatigue from 

 the muscles and nerves through the blood and lymph, the expul- 

 sion of exudations from the lungs through expectoration. IVIany 

 corpuscular disturbing factors (as bacteria, dead cells, haemor- 

 rhagic foci) are removed through the activity of the living cells 

 (phagocytes) and digested, the body being thus freed of such sub- 

 stances. Other foreign bodies are encapsulated by a wall formed 

 by the tissues of the organism for their own protection, and thus 

 rendered harmless. Deficiency of nutritive material in the fluids 

 and cells is corrected by the supply from the stomach and intes- 

 tine ; dead cells are replaced by new elements from existing forma- 

 tive areas (as new blood cells from the bone-marrow). Tissue 

 losses are repaired by processes of regeneration. And, too, the 

 production of antibodies of most varied type is possible for the 

 protection of the animal body. 



The therapeutic art is in no wise at variance with natural proc- 

 esses of recovery, but, on the contrary, employs the various regu- 

 lating and compensatory mechanisms of the body in order to bring 

 about an adjustment of the disturbances, and attempts to induce 

 conditions more favorable to a rapid adjustment than is possible 

 when no influence is brought to bear upon the pathogenic agent ; 

 at the same time it attempts to restrain further agencies which 

 may retard the recovery. The practice of medicine is also 

 directed to guard against the extension of contagious diseases and 

 particularly against the inception of disease, so that in this phase, 

 too, the lofty power of science holds nature in check, which, with- 

 out the aid and skilled intervention of man. would threaten with 

 annihilation, all too soon, the creatures of the earth. The sienifi- 

 cance and success of medical science is particularly impressed 

 upon one when it is recalled how destructive epidemic diseases, 

 which in times past carried ofif millions of animals and men, have 

 in some instances been wholly eradicated, in other instances greatlv 

 diminished. By appreciation of the nature of a varied group of 

 affections, there has come the discovery of efficient methods for 



