"When the experiments made by Brown-Séquard with testicular juice were published, an extraordinary degree of attention was attracted to the subject, and presently there were brought forward trials made with extracts from various organs besides the testes—with the thyroid gland, the pancreas, the brain and spinal cord, etc. Not a little ridicule attended the subject of testicular juice on its first announcement, but subsequent experience has fully confirmed the statement originally made by Brown-Séquard, and now the remarkable restorative power of this fluid injected subcutaneously is admitted by all scientific authority concerned with this subject. According to Poehl, of St. Petersburg, the effect of testicular juice is due to the presence in it of spermine, a principle which accelerates oxidation by contact. But by Brown-Séquard and his assistant, D'Arsonval, the effects are ascribed to a ferment action, a diastasic power which acts as a succedaneum, or replaces the natural ferment produced by the testes and other organs. In that disease caused by atrophy of the thyroid gland and known as myxoedema, the injection of thyroid juice brings about a marvellous change in the condition of the patient, and is rapidly curative. When the testicular juice is injected the vital resources are remarkably re-enforced, and the individual declining into decrepitude of old age, the invalid exhausted by illness or wasting disease, etc., receives a new instalment of life as it were, for all the functions are performed with increased vigor. Spermine does not possess such powerful reconstituent qualities, and cannot therefore be substituted for the testicular juice.

The mode of preparing the extract or juice, as described by D'Ar-sonval, is as follows: The testicle of the bull, which is preferred, is brought to the laboratory, enveloped in its membranes, which are removed and the organ washed in a 10-per-cent solution of corrosive sublimate, followed by douching with sterilized water. The testicle is then divided into five or six parts and placed in aseptic glycerin, and allowed to mature for twenty-four hours—one litre (= 32 oz.) of glycerin being used for every kilogramme (= 2.2 lbs.) of testicle. A solution of common salt, 25½ (= 6½ drs.) in 500 c.c. of boiled water, is added to the glycerin solution. It is then filtered through sirup paper (Laurent's gray filter No. 8). If the temperature of the fluid is raised to 104° Fahr., the filtration goes on rapidly; if cold, but slowly. According to D'Arsonval, this solution should be sterilized by subjecting it to a pressure of 30 atmospheres of carbonic acid, and he has invented an ingenious apparatus for effecting this (Bul. Gén. de Thérap., February 28, 1893, p. 151.)

Constantin Paul's extract of the gray matter of the brain is prepared in a similar manner. He makes use of the gray matter of the sheep's brain. Of this, 15½ (= 3 5), finely minced, is digested for twenty-four hours in five times its weight, or 75 grm. (= 3 25, or three ounces), of pure glycerin. To this is added the same quantity, or 3 25, of a solution of common salt, 12 per cent in strength. The dose of this is one c.c. (= 16 minims) once a day or once in two days. Of D'Arsonval's testicular fluid the dose ranges from 10 to 20 minims. It need hardly be observed that in using the testicular solution or the cerebral, the utmost care is necessary to keep the instruments aseptic, and it is useful also to wash the parts where the injection is to be made with 1:1,000 solution of corrosive sublimate, or 2:100 of carbolic acid.

Besides the organic extracts above mentioned, there have been introduced into practice various preparations of the same character, obtained, however, from other organs. The thyroid body, the suprarenal bodies, the kidney, spleen, bone-marrow, and other parts, furnish extracts for subcutaneous injection. It need hardly be stated that such solutions must be prepared under the strictest antiseptic precautions, to avoid serious accidents. Of those that have been used, it is certain that the extract of the thyroid body has been the most successful; but the internal use of the gland itself has almost taken the place of the subcutaneous method, as being painless and also far safer. Among the other animal extracts, that of the red-marrow of bones in anæmia, of the suprarenal bodies in Addison's disease, and of the kidney in chronic interstitial nephritis, have been most useful. In another section fuller information will be given on the subject of the antitoxins and their applications to the treatment of septic states.

We have to note that sodium phosphate has been proposed by Crocq, and by Luton, of Rheims, as a substitute for the organic matters. Crocq proposes a solution as follows: Sodium phosphate, 1 grm. (= 155 grs.); glycerin, 20 grm. (= 310 grs.); distilled water, 25 grm. (= 387 grs.); alcohol, 5 grm.(= 75 grs.). The dose is 3 c.c. (nearly 50 minims) every day or on alternate days by subcutaneous injection. The usual antiseptic precautions are to be observed throughout. Luton makes use of a solution of crystallized phosphate of sodium and sulphate of sodium. The advocates of this remedy maintain its equality in curative power with the organic solutions.