REACTIVITY OF MALIGNANT NEOPLASMS 225 



Brown-Pearce carcinoma in rabbits. The Trypaiiosoind bnuci in- 

 fection, hoAve\er, jnodiiced no effect. 



Carniinati (h),S:V) noticed a suggestive inhibitory effect of B. 

 i)ulga)icus (li(')itH)l>hilicns upon the development of Ehrhch's 

 carcinoma. 



Certain other organisms apparently produced no effect upon 

 tar carcinoma and transplantable tumors, i.e., B. prodigiosus 

 (Beebe and Tracy) , B. abortus, swine erysipelas. Streptococcus 

 equiuus adenitis (Boccolari-Segolini) , Sporotrichuni heurniaiii 

 (Lazzarini) , Spirocheta pallida (Castiglioni) , and proteolytic 

 gram-positive anaerobes (Torrey and Kahn, 1927). 



In recent papers there Avas reported the inhibitory effect of 

 spirocheta infections (Bayon) , and B. tuberculosis (Teutschlaen- 

 der, 1929, 1930) upon Rous sarcoma. 



The ^\ell-kno^\n treatment of human sarcomas ^vith Coley's 

 fluid, and regression following spontaneous erysipelas infections, 

 which may give a favorable result in patients, hardly need any 

 review. Some authors (W^ildapfel and others) did not notice any 

 improvement following repeated injections of emulsions of Strep- 

 tococcus erysipelatis and claimed that the alleged good results 

 were due to spontaneous regressions. A niniiber of reports on 

 single cases of spontaneous cures from carcinomas following in- 

 fections also may be found in the literature (for instance, Avra- 

 m()\ ici-malaria infections, Lewin-spirilla infections, etc.) . 



EFFECT OF ACTIVE PRINCIPLES OF THE PHENOMENON 

 UPON TUMORS 



As may be seen from this short revicAv, an impression may be 

 gained that bacteria or their products produce an inhibitory effect 

 upon transplantable and spontaneous neoplasms. The mode of 

 elicitation of reoression and the nature of the reaction obtained 

 remains, ho^ve\er, unkno^vn. 



Shortly after I described the phenomenon of reactivity to bac- 

 terial filtrates in the skin and other organs. Gratia and Linz 

 (i932/>') attempted to determine whether the phenomenon could 

 also take place in neoplastic tissue. In a first group of experi- 

 ments already noted, se\ere hemorrhagic necrosis ^vas obtained 

 by the effect of combined intratumoral and intraperitoneal in- 

 jections of B. coli active principles into liposarcoma-bearing 

 guinea pigs. Guinea pigs were selected because of their suscepti- 

 bility to the phenomenon of local skin reactivity. In later experi- 



