His model was on the one hand the impact of quinine on malaria, and on the other hand, in analogy to serum therapy, he thought there must also be chemical pharmaceuticals which would have just as specific an effect on individual diseases.
Sein Vorbild war einerseits die Wirkung von Chinin gegen Malaria, andererseits meinte er, dass es analog zur Serumtherapie auch chemische Pharmaka geben müsse, die ebenso spezifisch für einzelne Krankheiten wirkten.