Intravenous injections have a place in sane therapy only when the medicament to be so administered is of known composition and when evidence is available which gives assurance that definite results shall follow its use. In the absence of these conditions it is manifestly unwise and even unexcusable to employ any medicament in this manner, and its repeated use is reprehensible.
“Intravenous injection of Methyl-phenol Serum alternating with intravenous injections of mercury should be given every 48 hours until infection is under control.”
This quotation further emphasizes that the treatment, as advised, carries with it a certain element of danger.
“Methylene blue prevents the phenol from exerting its usual action upon the red blood corpuscles, and ensures rapid elimination through healthy kidneys. It preserves the antiseptic power of the phenol and prevents the phenol from interfering with the chemico-biological function of the white and red blood cells. The serum component favors chemotaxis, it strengthens bodily defense, it prevents anaphylaxis even in debilitated patients, and it replaces the resistance which has been impaired by the demands that have already been made upon it.”
No evidence is submitted to substantiate these claims. It seems strange that phenol should lose its power and that this should be restored by the methylene blue.
“It has a refractory chemico-biological action, and exercises no vicious effect on the red blood corpuscles in the circulation, but, on the contrary, by its inoffensive presence, it wholly preserves all of the physiological properties of the blood.”
What “a refractory chemico-biologic action” is, is not clear, but there is no evidence that this preparation has any action which might be defined as “refractory chemico-biological,” that its presence is inoffensive or that it wholly preserves all the physiologic properties of the blood.
“The treatment of gonorrhea by Cano’s theory ... is firmly based upon chemico-biological facts and accepted authoritative theories and bears the same relation to gonorrhea that intravenous injections of arsenicals bear to syphilis.”
Quite an exaggerated and unwarranted statement. In the same way, objection is taken to the following quotations:
“Phenol administered intravenously in combination with methylene blue, to protect the red-blood globule, undergoes no change, and preserves all of its actual antiseptic effect on the gonococcus and its toxins as though employed in the test tube.”