The biological basis of specific therapy / [by] Dr. Simon Flexner.

  • Flexner, Simon, 1863-1946.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The biological basis of specific therapy / [by] Dr. Simon Flexner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ness of the operation is determined not only by the intrinsic qualities of parasite and of host, but also in a high degree by the manner of location and distribu- tion of the parasites themselves within the infected host. Whether they have a general distribution throughout the blood and tissues, or whether they are confined within a pathological process in the interior of an important organ or part, may be the factor deter- mining whether not only the native curative principles shall gain ready access to them, but whether, also, extraneous curative agents introduced into the body shall be able to reach the seat of disease. The parasite, struggling to survive, withdraws, at one time, into situations to which the curative sub- stances gain access imperfectly and with difficulty, causing thereby local infections more or less cut off from the general circulation and the curative sub- stances purveyed by the blood. This is the condition met with in massive inflammations, in abscess forma- tion and in infections of specialized portions of the body — such as the great serous cavities — that re- ceive normally a modified and dilute lymph secretion. It is the lymph which carries the protective, as it does the nutritive, principles for the tissues and organs ; and hence this fluid provides the essential safeguard against infection. Moreover, the quality of lymph in the several serous cavities is not the same, but is indeed peculiar for each cavity, and the lowest limit of strength is reached by the cerebro- spinal fluid, — regarded as the lymph of the brain and spinal cord,—which is almost devoid of protein matter.* *The notion that the cerebrospinal fluid is the lymph of the central nervous system is open to discussion. Mott (The Lancet, 1910) suggests that it may serve as the ambient fluid of the neurons and play the part of lymph to the central nervous system. The fluid arises from the choroid plexus and escaping from the foramina of Magendie and Luschka