VETERINARY MEDICINE. 477 



The relation which leucotactic substances bear to immunity and processes 

 of inflammation in which leucocytes play a part are discussed. 



Further researches on combined vaccines. A, Casteu.lani {Reprinted in 

 Jotir. Trop. Med. and Hijg. [London^, 17 {WU), No. 21, pp. 326-333).— Work is 

 reported with mixed vaccines which is said to be confirmatory of earlier results. 

 The combined vaccines studied were typhoid, paratyphoid A, and paratyphoid 

 B ; cholera and plague ; typhoid, paratyphoid A, paratyphoid B, plague, and 

 cholera ; typhoid and Malta fever ; typhoid, paratyphoid B, paratyphoid A, and 

 Malta fever; typhoid, paratyphoid A, paratyphoid B, Bacillus columbensis, 

 and B. asiaticus; typhoid, pai-atyphoid A, paratyphoid B, Micrococcus melitensis, 

 B. columhensis, and B. asiaticus; dysentery, typhoid, and paratyphoid; and 

 cholera, plague, typhoid, paratyphoid A, paratyphoid B, and Malta fever. 



The use of combined vaccines made from carbolized emulsions of agar cul- 

 tures in normal salt solutions which are not heated is deemed feasible, and 

 when given to man the reaction is not severe and is less painful than when the 

 bacteria are killed by heat. "The individuals inoculated with the above- 

 mentioned combined vaccines generally produce agglutinins for each species of 

 bacteria, and the amount for each species is not much less than control in- 

 dividuals inoculated with simple ' one disease ' vaccines. The only exception, 

 though only to a certain extent, seems to have been in the case of the typhoid- 

 dysentery vaccines. Combined vaccines, when efficient, are of practical advan- 

 tage, saving a great deal of time and rendering possible a contemporaneous 

 vaccination for several different maladies." 



The theoretical principles of employing specifi.cally standardized ferments 

 as a therapeutic measure, E. Abderhaxden (Fermentforsch., 1 {1915), No. 2, 

 pp. 99-104)- — It is found that tumor-bearing animals treated with the serum 

 taken from a healthy animal pretreated parentally with tumor substratum 

 will show a marked improvement and a recession of the tumorous growth. 

 This principle is being tested with other diseases. 



Serum reaction in pregnancy and cancer by the coagulation method, W. W. 

 King {Jour. Ohstet. and Gynecol. British Empire, 24 {1913), No. 6, pp. 296-303; 

 al)S. in Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 62 {1914), No. 8, p. 650). — ^The serum from 

 pregnant subjects was tested against various tissues. Albumin obtained from 

 the urine of a pregnant subject was not digested by the serum from that subject, 

 but was decomposed by the serum of three other pregnant subjects. 



" Carcinoma tissue was obtained from a case of advanced carcinoma of the 

 cervix, and both this and the albumin were prepared exactly in the same way 

 as the placental albumin. Out of 9 pregnant sera, 6 digested other albumins 

 besides placenta, thus demonstrating that the ferments of pregnancy are not 

 limited in their power of digesting albumin. Of 8 cases of malignant disease, 

 3 digested placental tissue. These 3 cases included one of sarcoma of the 

 knee. . . . Urinary albumin was not digested by this serum, though a case 

 of epithelioma of the tongue reacted strongly to it. Three sarcomas were 

 negative to carcinoma tissue. Thus out of 17 cases of pregnancy and malignant 

 disease, 9 sera digested albumins of a different type from that against which, 

 ex hypothesi, they were produced." 



If these observations are accurate, therefore, the ferments are not specific. 



Bacterial vaccines — their use and abuse, A. T. Ferguson {Amer. Vet. Rev., 

 46 {1915), No. 4, pp. 437, 438).— The author deplores the fact that vaccines are 

 used by the laity. 



Autolactotherapy. A new system of therapeutics, C. H. Duncan {Amer. 

 Vet. Rev., 46 {1915), No. 5, pp. 510-525).— This method depends on the immuni- 

 zation of the child through the agency of the mother's milk. The subject may 

 also be immunized by drinking the milk of animals immunized with the micro- 



