HUNTOON AND HUTCHISON 925 



affecting the limbs. Where paralysis affected all four limbs the rabbit usually died about the 

 fifth to seventh day. When this material was mixed with the antitoxic serum before injec- 

 tion, not only did the animal live, but no paralysis resulted. Normal serum did not have this 

 effect. The results, however, are rather irregular and do not lend themselves to practical 

 application for the determination of therapeutic power. 



ANTI-GONOCOCCIC SERUM 



Specific antibodies have been found in the blood in chronic gonococcus infections. 

 These include opsonins, agglutinins, bacteriolysins, and complement-fixing anti- 

 bodies. Since recovery from gonococcus infection is usually dependent upon phago- 

 cytosis, opsonins or bacteriotropins would appear to be the most important. Anti- 

 gonococcus serum was first produced by Torrey,' who showed that it was chiefly anti- 

 bacterial in nature, containing opsonins, agglutinins, and complement-fixing anti- 

 bodies, but no antitoxin. It appears to be of some value in the treatment of gono- 

 coccus bacteremia and in some of the acute gonorrheal complications, especially 

 arthritis and epididymitis. It is of little or no value in chronic gonorrheal conditions 

 and has no effect on acute urethritis. 



Preparation. — Torrey used goats for the production of his serum, giving graduated doses, 

 first of dead and later of living gonococcus cultures, intraperitoneally. In the methods of 

 immunization now commonly used, horses are immunized by methods which closely follow 

 those employed in preparation of anti-meningococcic serum (see p. 926). 



Standardization is done by agglutination tests and by complement-fixation tests. 



ANTI-MENINGOCOCCIC SERUM 



Some seventeen years after the discovery of the meningococcus by Weichselbaum 

 (1887), a world-wide epidemic of meningitis developed suddenly, and persisted more 

 or less continuously in various parts of the world from 1904 to 19 10. The severity of 

 this pandemic, together with the fact that therapeutic measures suggested up to that 

 time had no influence on the death rate, stimulated efforts to develop a specific 

 remedy. While Jochmann of Germany is generally given credit as the first to produce 

 an anti-meningococcic serum, a number of investigators in different countries were 

 attacking the problem at the same time. 



During the winters of 1903, 1904, and 1905, a very large number of cases occurred 

 in New York City, and a commission was appointed to study the problem. The fruit 

 of this work was the development by Flexner and Jobling of an anti-meningococcic 

 serum. Park independently at the same time had produced a serum. Another result 

 of this investigation was the publication three years later by Elser and Huntoon^ of 

 their "Studies on Meningitis," in which relationships of the meningococcus to the 

 other gram negative cocci were demonstrated. At that time the division of the 

 meningococci into subgroups had not been discovered. Grouping was brought forcibly 

 to the front as a result of the World War experience. In certain epidemics anti- 

 meningitis serum proved to be of real value. In others there was a high percentage of 

 faUures not accounted for by lack of potency of the sera used. The explanation was 

 supplied during and following the war, when English and French investigators 



'Torrey, J. C: J. A.M. A., 46, 261. 1906. 



= Elser, W. J., and Huntoon, F. M.: /. Med. Research, 20, 373. 1909. 



