CHAPTER VI 



Specific Therapy with Bacteriophage Suspensions 



1. THE specific THERAPY OF BACILLARY DYSENTERY 



Before undertaking experiments on man I had to assure myself that 

 the administration of suspensions of the Shiga-bacteriophage caused 

 no reaction. First, I ingested increasing quantities of such suspensions, 

 aged from six days to a month, from one to thirty cubic centimeters, 

 without detecting the slightest malaise. Three persons in my family 

 next ingested variable quantities several times without showing the 

 least disturbance. I then injected myself subcutaneously with one 

 cubic centimeter of a forty-day old suspension. There was neither a 

 local nor a general reaction. In all the cases, twenty-four hours after 

 the ingestion or after the injection, I was able to isolate from the stools a 

 bacteriophage possessing for the Shiga bacillus an activity equal to that 

 of the race administered. More recently G. Eliava has received by 

 subcutaneous injection 5 cc. of a suspension of Shiga-bacteriophage aged 

 thirty days. No reaction, local or general, followed. 



It is known that the subcutaneous injection of Shiga bacilh, killed 

 by any procedure whatsoever, can not be performed because of the 

 extremely violent reactions produced, which are due to the toxicity of 

 the bacillus. This is precisely the reason that vaccine prophylaxis is 

 not applied to dysentery as it is in the case of typhoid. The absolute 

 innocuity of injections of the Shiga-bacteriophage suspensions, which 

 contain the substance of the bacterial bodies in a dissolved state, shows 

 indeed that these substances undergo profound modifications under the 

 influence of the dissolving agents of the bacteriophage protobe. Never- 

 theless, these new substances possess a specific immunizing power 

 much more potent than the original substance. The experiments on 

 rabbits, and in particular the results secured in immunization against 

 barbone, demonstrate this beyond possible doubt. 



Prophylactic vaccination against bacillary dysentery by means of 

 suspensions of the anti-dysentery bacteriophage is therefore applica- 

 ble to man. In practice, quite naturally, the prophylactic injections 

 should be performed with a mixture of bacteriophage races — ^anti- 

 Shiga, anti-Flexner, and anti-Hiss. Such a mixture would constitute 

 a polyvalent dysentery vaccine. 



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