WILLIAM PALMER LUCAS, M. D., AND HAROLD L. AMOSS, M. D. 241 



the morbidity. The mortality diminished from 30 or 40 per cent 

 to almost nothing. The immunity secured was of very short 

 duration, three or four weeks. 



L/udke in 1905 3 published an experimental study on rabbits, in 

 which he studied the production of agglutinins and anti-bodies 

 and the power of the serum so produced to kill the dysentery 

 bacillus. Both Shiga and Ludke showed that the general and 

 local reactions after using the Shiga dysentery bacillus were very 

 marked and at times quite dangerous. Ch. Dopter 4 has published 

 in the Annales de Tlnstitut Pasteur for September, 1909, page 

 677, a complete study on the Preventive Vaccination by the 

 Dysentery Bacillus (an experimental study). In conjunction with 

 M. Vaillard 5 in 1903 he had shown that adult mice or white rats 

 were the best laboratory animals for experimentaion with this 

 organism. He therefore worked with adult mice weighing 

 twenty grams,, giving them .00001 of a grain of a kill dried cul- 

 ture of dysentery bacillae. His results showed that with mice 

 such vaccination in 40 to 50 per cent, of cases can confer an 

 immunity against a fatal dose and that such an immunity ap- 

 pearing about twelve days after the first injection lasts from four 

 to six weeks. During the negative phase, i. e., while the animal 

 is acquiring its immunity, it is more susceptible to a fatal dose 

 than the control. The local and general reaction of such vaccine 

 were quite marked. It is of great importance to note that there 

 is a negative phase, for this fact makes it impractical to use this 

 method when there is an epidemic of dysentery or when the 

 disease is very prevalent, as it is during the summer months. 

 Dopter cites the use of this method in several human cases. For 

 instance, Kruse gave himself a sub-cutaneous injection of one 

 cubic centimeter of a killed culture. At the site of inoculation 

 there was marked swelling, oedema and pain. After about four 

 days during which time there was slight abatement the gen- 

 eral symptoms of fever and prostration appeared. Shiga in- 

 jected into his forearm a small dose of a kill culture. In a 

 few hours his temperature rose to 38.6 and there was marked 

 swelling, oedema and pain at the site of inoculation. His axil- 

 lary glands also became swollen. After about three days, during 

 which time the symptoms abated slightly the swelling and tem- 

 perature recurred. Rosenthal also tried this same vaccination on 

 himself and on his laboratory boy, inoculating one cubic centi- 

 meter of a kill culture sub-cutaneously. There was a marked 

 local reaction as well as general constitutional effect, headache 

 and arthritis. These personal experiences show the discomfort 

 of such a method of vaccination. The same results were obtained 

 by Dopter by using the autolytic products of the dysentery bacil- 

 lus (Shiga). The immunity lasted no longer than six weeks and 



