THERAPY 197 



castrated bitches the consumption of oxygen falls about 20 per cent., the total 

 metabolism of gases about 9 per cent, below normal, and that this alteration 

 of respiratory metabolism continues for a long time after ovariotomy, even 

 from six to twelve months. If such animals are fed with dried ovaries, the 

 interchange of gases returns to its former height and even beyond it. 



On the other hand, under the influence of obphorin, no increased destruc- 

 tion of N-containing substances takes place — no interchange more rapid than 

 in normal animals — nor could similar results be obtained after ovariotomy in 

 animals by the use of didymin or spermin. This explains Landau's successes 

 with the administration of ovarian tablets in menstrual anomalies, during the 

 climacterium, in chlorosis and hysterical conditions; these good results I can 

 partially confirm from my own experience. 



Other organic extracts and preparations are also known to produce certain 

 effects upon the organism. Thus adrenal extract increases blood pressure, 

 preparations made from the spleen and liver have an influence upon leukocy- 

 tosis, etc. However, these are, as far as can at present be ascertained, only local 

 effects limited to definite circumscribed areas, and may be compared to the 

 action of digitalis upon the heart, or of atropin upon the pupil. We cannot 

 claim for them any specific curative efEect. 



The successes reported with cerebrin in cerebral affections, with medullin 

 in diseases of the bone, with didymin, with the extract or with the substance 

 of the adrenals in Addison's disease, with pancreatic tablets in diabetes, etc., 

 must be regarded as very exceptional, if indeed we credit them at all. These 

 preparations have not as yet found general acceptance. Consequently, I do not 

 intend to relate in detail what has been accomplished, or, better, what has 

 been attempted by their use. 



In this field of therapy the same phenomenon is met with which we find 

 at present in other realms of therapy: professional activity and choice are 

 influenced more than is desirable from a source outside of the profession. I 

 mean by the manufacturing chemist. The chemical laboratories, especially 

 of the anilin works, have lately thrown themselves zealously into the endeavor, 

 laudable in itself, to produce or to combine chemical bodies whenever a the- 

 oretic consideration or, more rarely, an animal experiment appeared to show 

 the existence of a pharmacodynamic property. These endeavors have flooded 

 the medical market with an endless number of new preparations that are 

 distributed for trial, and with the hope of a successful trial, to competent and 

 incompetent Judges. Kow there is absolutely no curative agent, no matter 

 how slight the foundation for its use, that does not have its firm believer, and 

 serve for purposes of investigation. Frequently it is tested in only a few cases 

 from private practice, and then its epithon ornans " clinical observation " is 

 attached. The results, in the form of reprints, are then sent by the labora- 

 tory into the world by thousands. Unfortunately the opinions expressed in 

 these reprints often depend upon autosuggestion or an uncritical spirit in 

 the author: in other cases the effects produced by the new preparations are 

 nowise better than the action of old and reliable remedies. 



Who knows the preparations? Their name is Legion; they are sent out 

 with " first-class recommendations "■ — this commercial expression is excusable 



