302 THE PRINCIPLES OF IMMUNOLOGY 



This rapid improvement appeared to be somewhat more striking in the 

 moderate and mild cases than in those which were considered severe. 



Other investigators have noted that non-specific therapy has been 

 quite as effective as the use of specific typhoid vaccine. Kraus found 

 that colon bacilli were equally effective and others have confirmed this 

 observation. Liidke has employed deutero-albumose, Weichardt al- 

 bumin solutions, Nolf pepton and still others have employed such sub- 

 stances as dextrose, colloidal gold and even normal salt solution. Gay 

 admits that the non-specific form of therapy has been as effective as 

 the use of sensitized typhoid vaccines, but urges the employment of 

 typhoid vaccine because it may be kept indefinitely in dried form under 

 conditions of .strict asepsis and can readily be injected in exact amounts. 

 He further states that " typhoid vaccine has the advantage over other 

 protein preparations of building up the active immunity of the patient, 

 and a sensitized vaccine will, in our experience, produce a higher grade 

 of leucocytosis." 



Paratyphoid Fever. Rathery and others have used therapeutic 

 vaccination in paratyphoid B fever. It was concluded that the treatment 

 is useful, always improves general condition, often shortens the fever 

 and has never led to harmful results. Others have found that typhoid 

 vaccine is as effective in paratyphoid as in true typhoid fever and the 

 non-specific therapy indicated above has also been effective. 



Dysentery. The vaccine treatment of dysentery is confined to the 

 bacillary form and of these varieties the cases due to the Flexner 

 bacillus and other related forms appear to do much better than those 

 caused by the Shiga bacillus. Nolf, from his observations in the Belgian 

 Army, concludes that vaccine therapy, when administered by the intra- 

 venous route is the most effective therapeutic procedure in the more 

 chronic forms of bacillary dysentery. His cases did not include those 

 caused by the Shiga bacillus. Similar results had been reported by 

 Baroni in the Roumanian Army. He employed either six injections of 

 killed organisms or four injections of living vaccine. Kountze found 

 that in typical cases of dysentery, vaccination produced immediate gen- 

 eral improvement and reduction in the number of stools. The study of 

 the therapy of this disease has been somewhat hampered by the failure of 

 investigators to identify the strains of organisms concerned. Although 

 the results with vaccination have been encouraging, it is by no means posi- 

 tively proven that this mode of treatment is superior to serum treatment. 



TUBERCULOSIS 



The various forms of tuberculin are vaccines and treatment by their 

 use is an example of vaccine therapy. The methods of preparation of 

 the various tuberculins have been discussed (page 238). Koch's first 

 work with tuberculins was stimulated by the hope that treatment with 

 them might be effective. The use of the material in larger amounts 

 than now seem necessary led to severe reactions on the part of the 

 patients which in some instances were disastrous. For many years 

 tuberculin therapy was considered extremely dangerous and was prac- 

 ticed by very few clinicians. Recently, however, a more thorough 



