96 ESSAYS ON BACTERIOLOGY. 



had experience with, it, it must be given in large doses 

 and as early as possible in the disease. If possible, it 

 should be used as a preventive after a suspicious 

 injury. 



Tor pneumonia, typhoid fever and tuberculosis, 

 antitoxic serums have been prepared and have been 

 used in a considerable number of cases, and in several 

 other diseases they have been and are being tried to a 

 limited extent. It is too early to form any reliable 

 opinion as to the value of the treatment in these dis- 

 eases. The serum treatment of tuberculosis has been 

 given a sufficient trial to indicate that, as at present 

 prepared, not much can be expected from it. 



As to tuberculosis, the greatest of the serious dis- 

 eases with which we have to deal, each passing year is 

 bringing out in bolder lines the proof of its infectious 

 character. Personally, the writer grows more and 

 more convinced of the truth of this view, and of the 

 importance of action based thereupon. Of this he 

 has something to say elsewhere. 



Cholera has been the subject of a large amount of 

 investigation, the result of which has been to empha- 

 size its water-born character in many if not most in- 

 stances, and to make easier and more reliable the bac- 

 teriological diagnosis. The preventive inoculations 

 against cholera have been carried out upon a larger 

 scale by Haffkine in India. His recent report is a 

 mode] of scientific spirit and work, and appears to 



