378 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



tion and, in one case, brain abscess, by subdural inoculation of dogs. 

 Councilman, Mallory, and Wright 1 produced a disease in many re- 

 spects similar to the human disease by intraspinous inoculation of a 

 goat. Recently, Flexner 2 has succeeded in producing in monkeys a 

 condition entirely analogous to that occurring in human beings. 



Agglutination. Immunization of animals by repeated inoculations 

 of meningococcus 3 results in the formation in the blood serum of 

 agglutinins. Kolle and Wassermann 4 obtained from horses a serum 

 which had an agglutinating value of 1 : 3,000 for the homologous 

 strain, and of as much as 1 : 500 for other true meningococcus 

 strains. Similar experiments by Dunham 5 and others have proved the 

 unquestionable value of agglutination for species identification of this 

 group. Great differences may, however, exist between individual 

 races in their agglutinability in the same immune serum. 



Kutscher has recently called attention to the fact that strains 

 which can not be agglutinated in specific sera at 37 C. will often yield 

 positive results when subjected to 55 C., a fact of some practical im- 

 portance if confirmed. 



Elser and Huntoon 6 have shown that in the serum of infected human 

 subjects agglutination of some strains takes place in dilutions as high 

 as 1 : 400. 



Serum Therapy of Meningitis. During recent years, attempts have 

 been made to treat epidemic meningitis by injections, subcutaneous 

 and intraspinous, of meningococcus-immune serum. Wassermann, 7 in 

 1907, reported results of such treatment in one hundred and two patients, 

 with a recovery of 32 . 7 per cent. The serum, manufactured by Was- 

 sermann and his associates, was obtained from horses immunized with 

 cultures of meningococcus and with toxic meningococcus extracts. 

 More recently Flexner and Jobling 8 have used a similar serum in 

 the United States with apparently excellent results. The serum, in 

 Flexner's cases, as in the technique of Jochmann, is injected 

 intraspinously after a quantity of spinal fluid had been withdrawn. 

 The cases treated by Flexner and Jobling's method have now reached 



1 Councilman, Mallory, and Wright, loc. cit. 



2 Flexner, Jour. Exp. Med., 1906. 

 *Albrecht and Ghon, Wien. klin. Woch., 1901. 



1 Kolle und Wassermann, Deut. med. Woch., 15, 1906. 



Dunham, Jour. Inf. Dis., 11, 1907. 



Elser and Huntoon, loc. cit. 



Wassermann, Deut. med. Woch., 39, 1907. . 



8 Flexner and Joblinq, Jour. Exper. Med., x, 1908. 



