504 BIOLOGY OF PNEUMOCOCCUS 



however, that these stimulating substances in modified form, when 

 introduced into the cutaneous or subcutaneous tissues or into the 

 blood stream before circulatory invasion by the cocci has taken 

 place, may aid in fortifying the natural defenses of the body by 

 stimulating the rapid development of substances antagonistic to 

 the invading bacteria. 



In the clinical and statistical report published by Orenstein 1035 

 in 1931, the author stated that the experimental treatment of 

 pneumonia patients with pneumococcal vaccine failed to influence 

 favorably the mortality from the disease. Lister, 816 on the con- 

 trary, in 1916 reported that the intravenous injection of saline 

 suspensions of killed pneumococci into seven patients suffering 

 from lobar pneumonia caused no negative phase and apparently 

 exerted a beneficial effect, since all the patients recovered. 



Rosenow (1918), 1171 reasoning from his animal experiments that 

 partial autolysates of virulent strains of the different types of 

 pneumococci might better serve as auxiliaries in the mobilization 

 of protective substances during an attack of lobar pneumonia, ap- 

 plied this form of treatment to pneumonia patients studied during 

 three consecutive winters. The antigen was prepared by suspend- 

 ing in salt solution the sediment from cocci cultivated for eighteen 

 to twenty-four hours in glucose broth, then allowing the suspen- 

 sion to autolyze at incubator temperature under a layer of ether. 

 Self-digestion was permitted to progress until 95 per cent of the 

 organisms became Gram-negative and five cubic centimeters of the 

 preparation produced few or no symptoms in medium-sized guinea 

 pigs. The dosage, in practice, was one cubic centimeter daily until 

 the temperature became normal. The results, according to Rose- 

 now, were surprisingly good: of ninety-five patients receiving the 

 first injection of vaccine within forty -eight hours after onset of 

 the disease only 3 per cent died; of one hundred five injected on 

 the third day of the attack or later the mortality was 11 per cent. 

 Furthermore, the administration of vaccine shortened the duration 

 of the disease depending upon the promptness with which the treat- 



