SPECIFIC THERAPY WITH BACTERIOPHAGE SUSPENSIONS 545 



September 19. There were 2 formed stools on this day. 

 September 28. The patient was discharged from the hospital. 



In all of these cases the general condition of the patient always 

 paralleled the severity of the intestinal symptoms. 



Two other cases of dysentery due to the Shiga bacillus, treated in the 

 same manner, but outside of the hospital, gave comparable results. In 

 these there was a cessation of the bloody stools with improvement in 

 the general condition in the twenty-four hours immediately following 

 the administration of Shiga-bacteriophage suspensions. 



Since the pubhcation of these results^'-^ this method of treating 

 bacillary dysentery has been applied extensively, and the deduction 

 from my experiments, which to me appeared so logical, that the bacterio- 

 phage should constitute a specific treatment of dysentery^-"^ has been 

 absolutely confirmed. 



At the Institute Oswaldo Cruz at Rio de Janiero a test of the method, 

 involving an initial group of 24 patients was undertaken by da Costa 

 Cruz.^^^ To all of these cases the suspension of the bacteriophage was 

 administered -per os in a quantity of 2 cc. In 22 of the patients the stools 

 lost their bloody character within 24 hours after the ingestion, and in the 

 majority an improvement in the condition was evident within 4 to 6 

 hours. In the other 2 cases, after a temporary improvement, blood 

 reappeared in the stools a few hours later. In these, a second dose was 

 followed within the succeeding 24 hours, by improvement leading to a 

 permanent convalescence. 



Confronted by such results the Institute Oswaldo Cruz undertook the 

 preparation of bacteriophage suspensions virulent for B. dysenteriae 

 on a large scale. The results of da Costa Cruz, pubhshed in June, 

 1924^165 are given here, quoting directly from his report. 



Up to the present, we have prepared about 10,000 ampoules of the bacterio- 

 phage which have been distributed to several hospitals and to a number of phy- 

 sicians in the different States of Brazil. 



As a preliminary test of the method, the bacteriophage was first sent to Dr. 

 Nicolau da Costa (Para), to Dr. Cassio Miranda (Director of the Rural Prophy- 

 lactic Service of Maranhao), to Dr. Cavalcanti (Director of the Rural Prophylac- 

 tic Service of Pernambuco), to Dr. Travassos (Assistant at the Institute of Angra 

 dos Reis, Rio), and to Dr. A. L. Barros Barreto (Director of Rural Prophylaxis 

 of Parana). 



The results obtained by these colleagues fully confirmed those which we had 

 observed. 



As a result, we have been obliged to send material to a great many doctors, 



