172 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCTENCE.—1918. 
been found that ¢olloidal métals prepared by Bredig’s method (dis- 
persion by an electric arc with poles of the desired metal) are 
unsuitable for medicinal purposes, as they are not only unstable 
in themselves, but are rapidly decomposed by electrolytes present in 
the human organism. Where properly stabilised colloidal sols are 
employed they are as reliable as any of the preparations in the 
Pharmacopeia. 
It should be observed that some so-called synthetic remedies are 
found to be colloidal sols, though this is not generally known. This 
has led to some curious misstatements in regard to the relative 
therapeutic values of colloids and synthetic drugs. 
Owing to the impossibility of repressing ail side reactions in 
making experiments on the living subject, pharmacology and 
chemotherapy are among the most inexact of sciences. Yet the 
success which has attended investigations on the use of colloids as 
remedial agents is so great as to call for the sympathetic interest of 
all who can appreciate what has been accomplished, and affords a 
basis of hope that further developments will be still more beneficial 
to suffering humanity. It is highly probable that serum and vaccine 
therapy will ultimately be resolved into questions of colloidai 
chemistry, but in the meantime the use of colloidal solutions of 
certain elements appears to offer a means whereby the various 
colloids can be accurately prepared and administered with a higher 
degree of efficiency than is possible with some of the more complex 
synthétic compounds at present in use. 
The ever-increasing use of colloidal sols in military and private 
practice is a certain indication of their value,and among the indirect 
results of the World War, the facilities which it has given for the 
investigation of many hitherto obscure problems of disease and the 
opportunities which it has afforded for ascertaining the value and 
rationale of many new remedies, will be among the blessings of a 
catastrophe which is, otherwise, too awful to contemplate. 
Literature. 
. The literature on the applications of colloid chemistry to biology 
and physiology,*” and in the “ Kolloidchemie Beihefte,” ‘ Kolloid 
Zeitschrift,’ and “ Biochemische Zeitschrift’? should be consulted. 
Papers on the application of colloids in therapeutics also appear 
frequently in the “ British Medical Journal,” “The Practitioner,” 
“The Lancet,” and various foreign medical journals. Notwithstand- 
ing the voluminous literature on the general subject a vast amount 
of research into details remains unexplored. In the prosecution of 
further work, it is well to recall the words of a former president to 
the effect that “ Medicine is no unworthy ally of the British Associa- 
tion and while her practice is ever more and more based on Science, 
the ceaseless efforts of her votaries are ever largely adding to the sum 
of abstract knowledge. ”’*! 
30 See ‘ First Report on Colloidal Chemistry,” British Association, 1917, pp. 85, 86. 
Also present Report, pp. 117-154. 
3! Sir J. Lister, “Interdependence of Science and the Healing Art.” Presidential 
address to Brit. Assn., 1896 
SSEP.1919 
