and assisted in going to term, and better facilities offered for proper disposition and good rearing of the children, many of whom might be adopted into the childless homes of respectable people if proper steps were taken to secure them positions. This would make useful citizens out of many that are now destroyed or brought up in vice. This might seem to be putting a premium on illegitimacy, but bearing of an illegitimate child, even under such circumstances as this, would be no pleasant matter, and would not be regarded with near the complacency with which an abortion is contemplated at present.

4. Another reform sadly needed is an amendment of our State laws, making the age of consent at least sixteen, as is the case in most other States. The tender age at which a girl is allowed to give away her virtue, or be cheated out of it by the wiles and flatteries of some execrable seducer, is a blot on the name of our fair State, and a reflection on the gallantry of her sons. Carnal intercourse with a girl too young for legal marriage should certainly be made a crime, punishable by either castration or some other severe punishment.

5. More laws and better laws should be provided against mixture of the races. This would do much towards saving our sons from venereal diseases and vice, and would do more towards solving the race problem than all the ranting of newspapers on both sides of the Mason and Dixon Line, and the negro colleges that have even been, or ever will be, endowed by philanthropic but misguided individuals.

Perhaps these ideas may seem utopian or impractical to many, or even objectionable to some, but it is time we were abandoning the present policy of inaction, for its results, as shown above, are certainly not encouraging, and we should begin to do things along this line. If I can discern the signs of the times correctly, they are

pointing to a greater activity. The forces of evil may be growing stronger, but the people are beginning to realize that a fight must be made for purity, and that it is largely on the doctor that its success or failure depends.

I believe I shall live to see some of these suggestions realized as facts. But whether this be so or not, if I have brought the matter before the profession forcibly enough to arouse a more active interest in it, and have succeeded in impressing more firmly upon any of them the magnitude and the terribleness of the great social evil in general, and venereal diseases in particular, I will feel that my labors have not been in vain.

OPSONINS.

BY LAWRENCE LEE, M.D., SAVANNAH.

Much has been written on this subject recently, and of this so much seems to have been inspired by the enthusiasm of the writer, and not founded on the real knowledge and facts, that it is my object to sift as far as possible from this literature, what is actually known, or can be reasonably hoped for. It is upon the paper of Doctors Potter, Ditman and Bradley, read before the Section on Practice of Medicine of the American Medical Association, June, 1906, that I have based most of what I now present to you.

This paper contains more than any other article and, though the work of enthusiasts, is extremely conservative.

THE NATURE OF OPSONINS.

We have known for a long time that the body combats disease through the blood in at least three ways.

Ist. By certain bactericidal substances in the serum which destroy bacteria.

2d. By certain antitoxic substances which oppose or destroy their toxins.

3d. By the phagocytic power of the white corpuscles. It is with this last means of destroying bacteria, phagocytosis that we have to deal in this paper.

It has been found that the leucocytes do not possess their power of themselves. That there are substances in the serum in the presence of which they have this power, and in the absence of which they lose it.

Further, these substances do not confer this power on the leucocytes by any action on them, but by acting on the bacteria. Until the bacteria have been acted on the leucocytes have no power to destroy them.

Therefore, opsonins, meaning prepare to eat, is the name given to these substances, since they prepare the bacteria so that they may be devoured by the leucocytes. The method in which this was proved is briefly as follows:

1. An emulsion of staphylococci mixed with washed blood corpuscles, salt solution, was let stand at 37° Cent. for fifteen minutes and then examined. Phagocytosis serum was then added. Phagocytosis occurred. Therefore it is seen that it is some property of the serum which causes phagocytosis.

2. Washed corpuscles were mixed with serum and let stand for fifteen minutes at 37° Cent. Mixture was then heated to 60°, which temperature destroys opsonins. Cooled and emulsion of staphylococci added. After fifteen minutes at 37° Cent., no phagocytosis. Therefore opsonins do not act on leucocytes.

3. Mixture of serum and emulsion of staphylococci made. Let stand at 37° Cent. for fifteen minutes. Heated to 60° destroying opsonins. Leucocytes then added and mixture let stand at 37° for fifteen minutes. Marked phagocytosis.

Therefore opsonins act on the bacteria and change them so that they can be devoured by leucocytes.

A method has been elaborated by which, very roughly, an index of the opsonic power of a given blood may be obtained, that is a knowledge of its power of resisting disease through phagocytosis. Omitting detail, the method is as follows:

A mixture of equal parts of emulsion of bacteria, washed corpuscles, and serum to be tested is made and

let stand for fifteen minutes at 37° Cent., a smear is then made and the number of bacteria in 50 or 100 corpuscles counted and an average taken. This is then compared to results with normal serum, and this ratio is the opsonic index.

For instance, if with normal serum the average bacteria per hundred leucocytes was 3 and with serum to be tested 6, the opsonic index would be 2. If with normal 4 and with serum to be tested 3, the index would be .75. The enthusiastic workers hope to put their knowledge to use in a number of ways, among which are the following: 1. To calculate the strength of antitoxins.

2. As a means of diagnosis.

3. In treatment of disease by vaccines, using the opsonic index as a guide.

Difficulties-There are many to be overcome before these can be perfected. The chief of them lies in obtaining a more exact index. As yet there is—

I. No uniform emulsion of bacteria either in number or virulence.

2. No uniform technique of different workers.

The one given above is the one used by Wright, but not necessarily by all workers.

3. No standard normal serum. That with which serum to be tested is compared is usually that of investigator's own hand. He, himself, may not be normal.

4. Tests can be made only in a few laboratories, which are to be found only in the largest cities.

Can any of these difficulties be surmounted?

It is possible to understand how in time a uniform technique may be adopted.

Also from many examinations that tables may be formulated showing normal index toward various bacteria and index of blood to be tested, obtained from compari