ANTI-MENINGOCOCCIC SERUM. 115 



in doses varying from 10 to 40 c. c., and that these injections he 

 repeated at intervals of from four to eight hours. 



After injection of anti-streptococcic serum the patient usually 

 rests more quietly for several hours. This, however, need not 

 indicate that recovery from the disease will follow. The thera- 

 peutic effects of the serum are manifested by the relief of symp- 

 toms, decline in fever, improvement of the pulse, and subsidence 

 of the nervous symptoms. These effects usually appear within 

 twenty-four hours after injection if the serum is to be of value, 

 and if no relief comes within twenty-four hours after two injec- 

 tions of from 20 to 40 c. c. of serum, no beneficial results from the 

 use of the serum are to be hoped for. No untoward effects of the 

 serum are met with except the occasional skin rashes which have 

 already been discussed elsewhere. 



Anti-streptococcic serum, even though its curative results are 

 uncertain, ought to be used in every case of acute streptococcus 

 infection. The use of the serum in scarlet fever is not universal 

 but probably should be resorted to in the severer cases. In the 

 chronic cases of discharging sinuses, etc., streptococcuc vaccines 

 are at times used to greater advantage than anti-streptococcic 

 sera. 



ANTI-MENINGOCOCCIC SERUM. 



Agglutinating substances were discovered in 1903 by Jaeger, 

 in rabbits experimentally immunized to meningococci. Since 

 then numerous attempts have been made to produce specific 

 anti-sera to be used in passive immunization of the human. It 

 was not until 1906, however, that injection of such anti-meningo- 

 coccic serum was followed with any degree of success. In 1906 

 Kolle and Wasserman reported results on the use of specific 

 meningococcus serum which they had been able to produce in 

 animals either by intravenous or subcutaneous injections of 

 cultures of meningococci killed by heating to 60 C., or by in- 

 jections of extracts of meningococci, obtained by shaking these 

 organisms for four or five days in suspension in distilled water. 

 Jochman in this same year reported results on a specific anti- 

 meningococcic serum prepared after similar methods. The effects 

 obtained by the use of these sera have, however, not been as 



