526 
CHARLES II. DUNCAN. 
curative reaction is against the action of toxic substances devel- 
% 
oped during the course of the disease. The toxic complex. 
Remember it is the healthy tissues that react to toxic sub¬ 
stances. When the poisons of a disease are placed in healthy tis- 
sues, the tissues tend to resist the action of the poison, they react 
it. This reaction is the reaction to the disease. 
Healthy tissues are usually able to resist an invasion of patho¬ 
logical micro-organisms, but a lowered vitality coupled with ex¬ 
haustion or fatigue, lack of proper nourishment, etc., are etiolo¬ 
gical factors that are recognized as predisposing to a successful 
invasion of pathological bacteria. Especially are pathological 
micro-organisms likely to find lodgment in the tissues under these 
conditions, if there is a point of least resistance in the body. 
Weak lungs are predisposed to pulmonary infections, etc. The 
locus minoris resistentise, or point of least resistance, about which 
so much has been recently written, is pretty well understood. 
The experiments of Baumgarten are well known He crushed 
the testicle of healthy rabbits and then injected tubercular bacilli 
in the jugular vein. The tubercular bacilli were invariable dem¬ 
onstrated in the testicles. It was the point of least resistance and 
the bacteria were attracted to it. 
Rheumatism is a disease of more or less obscure etiology; 
this has been cured or relieved by heterologous vaccines of some 
of these three micro-organisms and by reverse reasoning, we 
might assume that these micro-organisms play a large part in the 
disease; especially do these micro-organisms appear to be an 
etiological factor in rheumatism, since “ several investigators 
have found them in the blood of rheumatic patients/’ (Dr. 
Ewing, Pathologist, Cornell University Medical College.) 
If we could obtain these micro-organisms and give them by 
the mouth we should tend to cure or relieve the patient. In rheu¬ 
matic patients, as in some forms of diabetes, etc., and other toxic 
diseases, let us examine our cases carefully over the whole body 
for skin lesions or an “ external manifestation of the internal 
trouble,” for auto-inoculation purposes. We may in this way 
cure many diseases, for the skin is a sewer of the body. One of 
its principal functions is elimination. 
