AUTOTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF SEPTIC DISEASES IN THE HORSE. 425 
late the manufacture of opsonins and bactericidal substances 
within the body fluids, as well, if not better, than the injection 
subcutaneously of autog'enous vaccine. He has also shown that 
subcutaneous injections of the filtrable toxins will also give the 
same results. 
This method of treating- infectious diseases, of which he is 
the originator, has been called by him, and properly too, “ auto¬ 
therapy.” The advantages of this treatment over autogenous 
vaccines at once clearly are manifested. It does away with the 
preparation of autogenous vaccines which, in addition to being 
tedious, is also expensive; likewise if this treatment is adopted it 
will dispense with the present hit and miss stock vaccines that are 
now in vogue. 
There are many strains of each great group of bacteria. Some 
one has estimated that there are probably as many as seventy 
different strains of streptococci, and nearly as many different 
strains of the colon group, etc., so in using a stock vaccine it is 
readily seen what a small chance there is of getting the same 
strain of bacteria as the one causing the infection. 
Many infections are mixed, and one is unable to determine 
which is the principal offending organism in order to administer 
a corresponding stock vaccine. But an autogenous antigen is 
obtained by the administration of the crude discharge, either in 
the mouth, or injections subcutaneously of the filtered toxins, 
enzymes, etc., of the discharge. 
This is a natural vaccine and in giving it by these methods 
we are applying artificial autoinoculation which is the secret of 
the cure of infectious diseases. 
My best results have been confined principally in cases of in¬ 
fections due to pyogenic bacteria, but its application promises to 
cover a large field of infections, and, that primarily, is the reason 
of my presenting the subject after such a limited experience with 
it, so as to enable others to determine to their satisfaction its 
efficacy in the treatment of infectious diseases in the horse. 
In the light of our present knowledge of the defensive forces 
of the body fluids, any criticism of this method as crude, is un- 
