EDITORIAL. There is strong evidence, he told National Institutes of Health scientists the other night, that bacteria and viruses become dangerous only when the setup is fixed for them. Otherwise even the most virulent of them are harmless. Every person, Dr. Dubos said, carries in the body throughout life a host of supposedly deadly “microbes” which live in blood and tissues as harmless guests until something happens to start them on a rampage.
NON-CAUSALITY AS A UNIFYING PRINCIPLE OF PSYCHOSOMATICS-SULPHUR. The concept of causality, namely the linear association of phenomena by cause and effect, has always been an unquestioned logical category; in scientific work, especially, it seems to us the only possible and thinkable one. To satisfy our scientific logic-the causal relationship of events has to be established before we can reasonably assume an understanding of the phenomena in question.
THE FALLACY OF ROUTINE AND EMPIRICAL PRESCRIBING. At the age of four years he developed an attack of acute rheumatic fever which left him with a mitral systolic lesion. About five months after this attack, he developed a severe case of tonsillitis with the usual symptoms of fever, sore throat and difficult swallowing.
MENTAL. The role played by mental symptoms has gradually been shown in our practice, quite as brilliant as the action today, demonstrated in an acute abdominal inflammation with severe continuous pain, responding promptly and bringing quiet restful sleep to this harassed man who otherwise in modern practice would have been treated surgically.