SPECIFIC THERAPY WITH BACTERIOPHAGE SUSPENSIONS 549 



After having followed for two years his studies on the subject of 

 bacteriophagy, now understanding the mechanism of the phenomenon 

 more completely, he used bacteriophage races whose virulence was in 

 fact very high. The results obtained are those reported above.* 



2. BACTERIOPHAGE THERAPY IN DIFFERENT INTESTINAL DISTURBANCES 



In the paper of da Costa Cruz from which we have quoted the follow- 

 ing comments appear. 



In addition, we have been surprised at the results obtained in cases of chronic 

 colitis of undetermined nature, of several years duration, — up to 15, — and which 

 have recovered following bacteriophage therapy. 



We have also observed one case of alimentary intolerance which recovered 

 quickly and permanently after administration of the bacteriophage. This offers 

 additional evidence that these conditions are of bacterial origin, associated with 

 typical dysentery bacilli or with the very closely related B. coli forms. The 

 bacteriophage has always been administered -per os, twice a day, morning and 

 evening, in doses of 2 cc. diluted in a glass of water. 



I have myself applied treatment by the bacteriophage to about 100 

 cases of intestinal disturbances, — patients with a colitis, or an enteritis 

 without a definite cause, and I have obtained a permanent recovery in 

 almost all of the cases. I have always used mixtures of different races 

 of the bacteriophage, including races virulent for the dysentery and 

 paradysentery bacilli, for the paratyphoids A and B, for B. enteritidis, 

 and for B. suipestifer. As da Costa Cruz implies, in these cases it is 

 often necessary to continue the ingestions throughout several days. 



3. BACTERIOPHAGE THERAPY IN TYPHOID AND THE PARATYPHOID FEVERS 



In the experiments which were made on preventive inoculation against 

 avian typhosis, among the fowls vaccinated there were about 100 which 

 were already sick at the time when the suspension of the bacteriophage 



for the Shiga bacillus," and he adds in parenthesis, that the bacteriophage was 

 active in vitro up to a dilution of 1:100. This very brief record shows that, 

 contrary to what he then believed, the bacteriophage used in his therapeutic 

 tests had but a low virulence, and not a high virulence, for had this been the 

 case it would have been active, not at 1:100, but in a dilution at least a million 

 times greater. 



* A further commentary on these early adverse reports is provided by the fact 

 that Munter, as a result of some observations made with Boenheim,^^^ renouncing 

 his first conclusions, has affirmed that it is possible to obtain some very interest- 

 ing results in the bacillary dysenteries of children. 



