It will be noted that nothing has been said in regard to the advisability of antiseptics, and for this reason, _viz._: That although the disease may apparently be associated with a micro-organism, this microbe plays no important part in the various manifestations of the disease. Whatever influence it may possess is, as we have seen from clinical experience, counteracted, discounted, by what the older physicians were pleased to term the _vis medicatrix naturæ_; and besides, we have absolutely nothing to warrant us in assuming that our present antiseptic measures and remedies exercise any perceptible influence when taken into the system, at least so far as regards this particular malady. Further investigations in this line may develop some new ideas in this respect, but for the present, we must rest content with the stern facts as we see them at the bedside. Special attention should be directed here to the theory of “_Digestive Leucocytosis_,” as elaborated by Professor Chittenden, published in another department of this number. _AUTO-INFECTION IN ABDOMINAL DISORDERS._ In view of the complications arising in the course of abdominal diseases from auto-infection, and with our recent knowledge in regard to this important but insidious factor, it behooves the physician to be on the look-out for such manifestations. Toxic anemia, as portrayed by Dr. JOHN E. BACON, in our last number, brings to light some valuable truths which should ever be uppermost in the minds of those having to deal with occult affections. Considering that we now have ample evidence that a sick person may be his own worst enemy, by reason of an unhealthy condition of the alimentary canal, it is not too much to assume that in many cases of prolonged illness, the complications arising may frequently be due to auto-infection, and thus, in addition to the disease which is seen, there is another disease engrafted upon the first which is insidious but persistent. The plan of using purgatives to unload the intestinal tract and relieve the portal circulation has its value, but the habit, once established, cannot be relieved permanently by this method. The addition of antiseptics is likewise a valuable feature in the treatment of this class of cases, and the two combined will often serve a useful purpose; but cases occur in which either method alone, or both combined fail, and it is then that we are compelled to study the philosophy of cell-function.