Pneumonia

“Despite laboratory advances in the 1930s that made pneumonia serum technically easier to use, physicians remained skeptical about the wisdom of using serum therapy in community practice. . . . Practitioners’ fears of serum therapy were ultimately rooted in the economics of medical practice. Using serum remained a tricky business not only because of the potential danger to the patient, but because of the potential injury to the physician’s reputation, should the patient react badly to serum or the expensive treatment fail.. Serum therapy for pneumonia might be rational therapeutics but the prudent physician might do best to avoid it” (Marks, 67).