886 LOCAL AND TISSUE IMMUNITY 



are perhaps equally vulnerable. The reason that these areas are particularly suscepti- 

 ble is simply because they are relatively free from phagocytes. This allows vegetative 

 anthrax bacilli sufhcient time to become animalized or encapsulated and thereby 

 virulent. At all events Besredka, by rubbing the attenuated first vaccine of anthrax 

 on the skin or by injecting intradermally, was able gradually to produce a solid im- 

 munity in guinea pigs which are almost impossible to immunize by other routes. 

 Enough time would seem to be allowed by this method for the bacteria to multiply 

 sufficiently to immunize but without becoming virulent (encapsulated). 



Similar results with intradermal vaccination have been obtained in larger animals. 

 Brocq-Rousseau and Urbain/ and also Nicolas,^ have apparently protected horses 

 very successfully in this manner. Very favorable results in cattle and sheep were 

 obtained by a single intracutaneous vaccination by Velu.^ 



It seems quite possible from these findings that intracutaneous inoculation may 

 prove to be the most efficient method of vaccinating against anthrax. They do not, 

 however, prove in my opinion that protection is effected by "closing," as Besredka 

 first expressed it, "a specific portal of entry," nor yet by acting in some desensitizing 

 fashion on specifically receptive cells, to use his later and more reasonable explanation. 

 Besredka may be correct in asserting that the protection he induces by this method 

 is not accompanied by the presence of antibodies, although Gratia^ has asserted the 

 contrary, but it does not prove that protection is due to a limited group of particularly 

 sensitive cells. 



Streptococci and staphylococci. — Besredka has offered results of interest in the 

 treatment of streptococcus and staphyloccus infections limited to external areas of 

 skin or mucous membranes. Antisera to these two organisms, if we except the treat- 

 ment of scarlet fever by an antitoxin to an apparently specialized race of the strepto- 

 coccus, have been wholly inefficient. Vaccine therapy has been questionably success- 

 ful in preventing the spread of staphylococcus infections. Besredka finds that when 

 guinea pigs are; prepared by application in the form of dressings, or by intracutaneous 

 injection, of sterile broth filtrates in which streptococci or staphylococci are grown, 

 subsequent injection of the corresponding micro-organism in the same area twenty- 

 four hours later is relatively harmless, whereas control animals suffer extensive lesions 

 followed by death. This effect he would attribute to a thermostable, specific "anti- 

 virus" existing in broth cultures, which inhibits growth of the organism, and which 

 vaccinates within a few hours against it. No protection is afforded against skin infec- 

 tion when the previous injection of "antivirus" has been given intraperitoneally. Plain 

 broth preparation in a similar manner, in Besredka's hands at least, showed little 

 evidence of protection. Distinctly curative results were also obtained by simultaneous 

 injection of culture and filtrate. 



Our own experiments, ^ corroborated by Ri\-ers and Tillett'' and by Mallory and 



' Brocq-Rousseau, M., and Urbain, A.: ibid., 89, 782. 1923. 



2 Nicolas, E.: Rev. Veter. Milit., 9, 54. 1925. 



3 Velu, H.: Compt. rend. Soc. dc bio!., 90, 746. 1924. 

 •t Gratia, A.: ibid., 91, 795. 1924. 



5 Gay, F. P., and Morrison L. F.: J. Infect. Dis., 33, 338. 1923. 

 "s Rivers, T. M., and Tillett, W. S.: /. E.vper. Med., 41, 185. 1925. 



