THE CRISIS IN PNEUMONIA

The recovery of the pneumonic patient by crisis is one of the most satisfactory and interesting clinical phenomena that come under the observation of the physician. The investigations of few problems can be more valuable than those that are concerned with the study of the mechanism involved in this reaction. It is true that no startling changes have taken place in the treatment of this disease during the last decade, except possibly in the treatment of the rather limited class of Type I cases. Nevertheless, our knowledge of pneumonia has been measurably extended, and with the broadened point of view has come greater possibility.

In a recent study, Weiss¹ reaches the conclusion that we must consider a dual source of intoxication in pneumonia, the one a specific sensitizing protein identified as a pneumotoxin and derived from the disintegrating organisms, the other an extremely toxic albumose, derived as a digestion