ANTI-GONOCOCCIC SERUM. 117 



ANTI-GONOCOCCIC SERUM. 



Various attempts have been made to produce an anti-gono- 

 coccic serum for passive immunization of man. It is a well known 

 fact that in the human no immunity results from an attack of 

 gonorrhea, and for this reason, together with the lack of favorable 

 results from the use of anti-gonococcic serum, most investigators 

 have concluded that a specific immune serum for Mic. gonorrhoeae 

 cannot be produced. In most of the attempts at the production 

 of anti-gonococcic serum old cultures of the organism have been 

 used. 



In 1906,Torrey described an anti-gonococcic serum with which 

 he had attained beneficial results in the treatment of some cases 

 of gonorrheal arthritis. In an attempt to make anti-gonococcic 

 serum, Torrey made the observation that the toxin of the Mic. 

 gonorrhoeae, which is present in old fluid cultures, is toxic for 

 the small laboratory animals. The toxin for the gonococcus has 

 been studied at various times, and has been generally regarded 

 as being derived from the dead and disintigrated bodies of the 

 organism, though by some it has been claimed to be a true ex- 

 tracellular toxin. Torrey found that it is not possible to im- 

 munize the small laboratory animals to this toxin, but that in 

 fact at times a true hypersusceptibility may develop as a result of 

 injections of this toxin. This investigator observed, however, that 

 animals can be immunized to the living and dead organisms of 

 gonorrhea, and that in the blood of animals so immunized agglu- 

 tinins and lysins are present. Based on these observations, Tor- 

 rey holds that the efficiency of the serum depends upon specific 

 bactericidal substances which act because of lytic rather than of 

 opsonifying power. Phagocytosis, according to this investigator, 

 is of little importance in the destruction of gonococci. 



Torrey and Rogers have prepared an anti-gonococcic serum 

 for use in treatment of gonorrheal infections in man. The method 

 of preparation of this serum, as perfected and recommended by 

 these investigators, and used by the different serum producers is 

 as follows: Strong healthy rams receive intraperitoneal injections 

 of increasing amounts of twenty-four hour old ascitic agar cultures 

 of various, recently isolated, virulent strains of Mic. gonorrhoeae. 

 The culture is suspended in salt solution, and for the first two 



