ANTI-TYPHOID SERUM. 121 



splenic pulp and defibrinated human blood medium. Tavel by 

 repeated injections of two weeks old bouillon cultures, sterilized by 

 the addition of 0.5 per cent of carbolic acid has made a serum 

 which is supposed to possess anti-toxic substances. Most of the 

 sera are, however, made by injecting into horses and other animals, 

 increasing doses of dead and living typhoid bacilli of various 

 strains. For these sera little or no anti-toxic value is claimed, 

 the immunizing properties being dependent on the lytic power of 

 tne serum. 



In the treatment of typhoid fever with these sera, 10 c. c. and 

 frequently larger quantities are injected daily until improvement 

 occurs. 



The results following the use of anti -typhoid serum have been 

 disappointing. In most cases no effects on the course of the 

 disease have been observed following the use of this serum. 

 Chantemesse in 1902, reported, that by the use of his serum the 

 death rate in children due to typhoid fever was 3 per cent, whereas 

 the death rate in all the children of Paris who received no such serum 

 injections, was 19 per cent. Occasionally observers have obtained 

 and reported cases in which improvement is rapid after the in- 

 jection of anti-typhoid serum. As is the case with many of the 

 anti -bacterial sera, there is in general no influence on the course 

 of the disease. In some cases, however, a drop in the fever and 

 improvement in the pulse and general conditions have been re- 

 ported as resulting from the use of this serum. Various reasons 

 have been assigned for the failure of the curative action of the serum, 

 the most important of which are, the lack of anti-toxic substances 

 which can combine with the toxin liberated after solution and 

 disintegration of the bacilli due to the specific lytic substances in 

 the serum, and, the failure of the body to supply a sufficient 

 amount of complement so as to get the destruction of the invading 

 typhoid bacilli. 



Jez has prepared an extract from the spleen, bone marrow 

 and lymph glands of animals immunized to typhoid bacilli. This 

 extract is usually administered by the mouth, and is supposed to 

 possess anti-toxic properties. The value of this extract is doubtful. 



Anti-typhoid sera are still in the experimental stage. With 

 the sera now produced no marked beneficial results can be hoped 

 for, and are only used in certain severe cases of the disease. 



