550 IMMUNOLOGY 



controls and 3.2 per cent among the children with positive initial 

 Mantoiix reactions. In regard to the efficiency of oral vaccina- 

 tion, Park states that if, following its administration, the de- 

 velopment of a positive tuberculin test is to be the criterion of 

 its efficiency, then only 20 to 40 per cent of the orally vaccinated 

 children can be regarded as effectively vaccinated. They noted 

 that allergj^ following vaccination does not last, as a rule, longer 

 than two or three years. 



3. Park et al. did not find B.C.ri. vaccination to improve the 

 general health nor to protect against other infectious agents as 

 claimed by Calmette. 



4. Bogen in discussing the paper presented by Park et al. calLs 

 attention to the value of the tuberculin test in diagnosing active, 

 primary tuberculosis in children. Since B.C.G. immunization 

 leads to the development of tuberculin allergy, it is obvious that 

 the test cannot be used in vaccinated children to diagnose active 

 tuberculosis. He regards this as one objectionable feature of 

 vaccination. 



5. Park regards the results they obtained as not conclusive at 

 the present time. The student will find from a perusal of the 

 literature that aside from the work just discussed, the majority 

 of the reports of the use of B.C.G, vaccine represent experiments 

 that are either uncontrolled or only partially controlled. Such 

 are the studies of Wallgren (1934) covering a short series of vac- 

 cinations in Sweden. His conclusions relative to virulence and 

 immunizing value of B.C.G. are in accord with the conclusions of 

 Park and his colleagues. Miller (1940) likewise says that neither 

 B.C.G. nor any other preparation has been proved to be of wide- 

 spread usefulness. The new "Vole tubercle bacillus" vaccine of 

 Wells and Brooke (1940) has been discussed in an earlier chapter. 

 It is apparently superior to the B.C.G. vaccine as an immunizing 

 agent in guinea pigs. 



Other Bacterial Allergies. — Brucellosis. 



Reference has been made'earlier in this chapter to the typhoidin, 

 mallein and abortin reactions. The latter is used to a limited ex- 

 tent as an aid in the diagnosis of undulant fever in man although 

 it has not replaced the agglutination test. These reactions are 

 all of the tuberculin type. Schoenholz and Meyer (1927) carried 



