from The Treatment of Diphtheria by Antitoxin
Only clinical experience can determine what practical difficulties there may be in the way of the successful em ployment of antitoxic serum in the treatment of human diphtheria, but there is no doubt in my mind that the results derived from experiments on animals justify, nay, demand, the most careful and thorough trial of the new method of treatment upon human beings.
We have no certain knowledge as to the nature of the sub stances called antitoxins nor as to their mode of action, This is not, however, an argument against their therapeutic employ ment, for we have no positive knowledge as to the mode of action of many of our therapeutic agents, There are two prominent theories as to the mode of action of the diphtheria antitoxin, The one may be called the chemical and the other the vital theory, The chemical theory is that the antitoxin directly neutralizes in a chemical sense the toxins, This seemed to be the natural interpretation of the fact that the injection into susceptible animals of a mixture in suitable proportion of the antitoxin and the toxin is harmless, but Buchner and Roux have shown that this earlier view is incor rect, and that by selecting animals of greater susceptibility or by increasing the natural susceptibility of an animal, the presence of active toxin in the mixture can still be demons trated.
The experimental evidence, therefore, is in favor of the other theory, viz, That the antitoxin acts through the agency of the living body, and probably in the sense that it renders the cells tolerant of the toxin,
The results of the treatment of human diphtheria with antitoxin speak also in favor of this vital theory,
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reproduction of an important historical work, Forgotten Books uses stateoftheart technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy, In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition, We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works, William Henry Welch April,April,was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical school administrator, He was one of the Big Four founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital,He was the first dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and was also the founder of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first school of public health in the country.
Welch was known for his cogent summations of current scientific work, than his own scientific research, The Johns Hopkins medical school library is also named after Welch, In his lifetime, he was called the Dean of American Medicine and received various awards and honors throughout his lifetime, and posthumously, William Henry Welch April,April,was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical school administrator, He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital,He was the first dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and was also the founder of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first school of public health in the country.
Welch was known for his cogent summations of current scientific work, than his own scientific research, The Johns Hopkins medical school library is also named after Welch, In his lifetime, he was called the "Dean of American Medicine" and received various awards and honors throughout his lifetime, and posthumously, sitelink.