The treatment of pneumonia with specific serums offers so much of promise that it would be inadvisable and unwise to do less than commend and encourage the further intensive study of this development of therapy. However, it is possible that this phase of treatment has proved so fascinating, has so intrigued the interest of the masters of medicine, that other considerations are being somewhat neglected in current medical literature.
It must be remembered that polyvalent serums are still in the experimental stage and that specific serums are of proved value in only a small percentage of the total of pneumonia cases, particularly when the large number of the epidemic influenza variety are included that have been occurring in the last twelve years.
In only a small percentage of the cases for which there is a specific serum are the facilities available for hospitalization or laboratory study, and most of these