Philadelphia, Aug. 2, 1907.
To the Editor:
—I am much interested in the investigations of Drs. Verhoeff and Ellis, reported in The Journal, June 26, in Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co.'s reply thereto, and in what may be called your defense of the former in The Journal, July 27, 1907, and it appears to me that Drs. Verhoeff and Ellis have permitted themselves to infuse an unwarranted element into their experiments, which entirely justifies the conclusion of Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co., that their "method of testing was faulty, and not at all comparable to the practical use of antiseptics."Under all circumstances, experimental conditions should be made to approximate as near as possible the natural state under which the subject to be experimented on is to act; but in spite of this fundamental principle they inject an artificial condition into their experiments which neither they nor any one else