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that will react favorably in various other diseases. We cer-
tainly will be; it is only a question of time. In the artificial
production, then, of the antitoxin of diphtheria, the micro-
organisms in pure culture are grown and their toxin col-
lected and injected into the blood of a large animal—a large
animal as the horse is chosen, because we can get so much
larger amount of blood from a large animal than a small one.
The poison developed by the micro-organisms is injected
into the blood of the animal in small quantities at first, so as
not to endanger it seriously, and yet effect the promotion of
the formation of the antidote in the blood. Then by draw-
ing small portions of the blood occasionally and injecting the
serum from it into smaller animals that are known to be
susceptible to diphtheria, and noting its effect in counteract-
ing infections of the animal with the diphtheria bacillus, the
strength of the antitoxin, or the antidote in the serum of the
blood of the first animal, is determined and brought up to a
certain standard. Then a large amount of blood is drawn
and the serum put up for use in the treatment of diphtheria.
It is in this way that the antitoxin is made, and it will prob-
ably be in a similar way that other antitoxins will be made
in the future. Efforts, at least, along this particular line are
being made with reference to a number of diseases that are
self-limiting in their course.
In use, the antitoxin is different from other remedies
used in medicine. For its best effect it should be used in the
prevalence of an epidemic in children who are not sick, but in
children who are liable to be sick. The use of antitoxin in
itself is in no wise dangerous to the child. To be most ef-
fective, then, it should be used to ward off an attack ; it should
be preventive rather than curative. Its use after sickness
has occurred, after the disease has begun, is necessarily Um-
ited to the beginning of the affection; it is of no use later.
But if used early in the beginning of the disease it will pro-
mote the formation of antitoxin in the blood of the child and
bring about a crisis earlier in the progress of the disease, and
in this way protect against the severity of the attack. For,
mind you, the principle of this is that the growth of micro-
organisms and the instilling of the poison into the blood be-
gets a formation of antitoxin in the blood that finally anti-
dotes their poison and allows the child to get well. Now, by

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