466 ABSTRACTS 



The incubation period varied from two to forty-one days with an aver- 

 age of twelve days. The lesions produced while dej&nite and consist- 

 ent lack the distinctive features of the pathologic picture of polio- 

 myelitis in man and the monkey. The symptoms differ in individual 

 rabbits and show variations from those seen in the monkey and in 

 man. — B. W. 



The Protection of Pathogenic Microorganisms by Laving Tissue Cells. 



P. Rous AND F. S. Jones. Jour. Exp. Med., 1916, 23, 601-612. 



One series of experiments was carried out to determine whether 

 phagocytes protect ingested bacteria against the bactericidal action 

 of sermn and of potassium cyanide. While the conditions of the 

 tests are scarcely comparable with conditions in the body, yet they 

 point to a protecting action on the part of the phagocyte. When 

 erythrocytes and a hemolytic system were substituted for bacteria 

 and bactericidal substances the results were sharp and conclusive. 

 Suspensions of dog leukocytes were incubated with rat erythrocytes 

 and dog serum was added for its opsonic action. After an hour's 

 incubation anti-rat erythrocj^te serum was added. It was then found 

 that while all extra cellular rat erythrocytes were dissolved, the pha- 

 gocyted red cells remained unaffected. From their experiments the 

 authors conclude that living phagocytes are able to protect ingested 

 organisms from the action of destructive substances in the surrounding 

 fluid, and even from a strong homologous antiserum, and that this 

 protection by phagocytes is largely, if not entirely, conditioned on their 

 being alive. These findings should be taken into consideration in 

 the study of diseases caused by infectious agents capable of living within 

 tissue cells. — B. W. 



Chemical versus Serum Treatment of Epidemic Meningitis. Simon 

 Flexner and H. L. Amoss. Jour. Exp. Med., 1916, 23, 683-701. 

 The authors studied the therapeutic effect of lysol and protargol 

 in experimental meningococcus infections. Neither substance proved 

 to have any curative action on the experimental infection in guinea 

 pigs and protargol failed to influence favorably the infection follow- 

 ing sub-arachnoid inoculation in monkeys. It was found that both 

 lysol and protargol exert antileukotactic and antiphagocytic effects, 

 and are also potent protoplasmic poisons, and the leukocytes with 

 which they come in contact are injured and made to degenerate. The 

 mixture of antiserum with lysol and with portargol reduces to a certain 

 extent the antileukotactic and antiphagocytic effect of the chemicals; 

 but this action is insufficient wholly to set aside the injurious effects 

 which they produce. Any theoretical advantages they may possess 

 are more than offset by the harmful effects which they cause, hence 

 specific antiserum seems to provide the logical therapeutic agent with 

 which to combat epidemic meningitis, since it is itself innocuous and 

 promotes those processes essential to recovery from the disease. 



B. W. 



