In an editorial article in one of our leading medical journals an eminent writer has recently said that the "treatment of acute lobar pneumonia is still a reproach to our art, even more so than phthisis pulmonalis, and there is no subject which deserves more earnest study." To the truth of this statement every practical physician who reads the current literature upon this subject can testify. The pathology of this disease is indeed very well understood, but the diversities in the methods of treatment applied are almost as many as the physicians who employ them.
In presenting this subject for your consideration in this paper, I propose to deal only with the first stage, or that preceding the stage of red hepatization. The very simple treatment outlined does not, indeed, do any harm, but often much good, if used after the affected portion of the lung is solidified, but of