506 Pneumonia 



serum from convalescent patients, tried by Hughes and 

 Carteras,* has been abandoned as useless and dangerous. 



More recent antipneumococcic sera have been experi- 

 mentally investigated by De Renzi,f Washbourn, t and 

 Pane. 



Washbourn prepared an antipneumococcus serum that 

 protected rabbits against ten times the fatal dose of live 

 pneumococci, in doses of 0.3 c.c. In general, the lines upon 

 which he operated were those of Behring, Marmorek's work 

 with the streptococcus furnishing most of the details. 

 Two cases of human pneumonia seem to have derived some 

 benefit from large doses of this serum. The sera of Pane 

 and De Renzi were not so powerful as those of Washbourn, 

 requiring about i c.c. to protect a rabbit. 



McFarland and Lincoln || succeeded in immunizing a 

 horse against large doses of a virulent culture of the pneumo- 

 coccus, and obtained a serum of which 0.5 to 0.25 c.c. pro- 

 tected rabbits from many times the fatal dose. 



The experiments by Passler** showed some gain over the 

 earlier work. 



The antipneumococcic sera thus far produced have given 

 disappointing results in clinical application. 



A leukocytic extract prepared by Hiss and Zinsser|t 

 from an aleuronat exudation in the rabbit's pleura has led 

 to results sufficiently encouraging in the treatment of 

 pneumonia in man to warrant further investigation along 

 similar lines. 



RosenowJI found that pneumococci suspended in sodium 

 chlorid solutions autolyse rapidly. By means of this au- 

 tolysis it is possible to separate, at least to a large degree, the 

 toxic from the antigenic parts of the pneumococcus, as the 

 toxic part goes into solution. The injection of the non- 

 toxic and, as it appears, antigenic portion autolyzed pneu- 

 mococci causes a marked increase in the immunity curve 



* "Therapeutic Gazette," Oct. 15, 1892. 

 t "II Policlinico," Oct. 31, 1896, Supplement. 

 I "Brit. Med. Jour.," Feb. 27, 1897, p. 510. 



"Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," May 29, 1897, xxi, 17 and 18, 

 p. 664. 



|| "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc.," Dec. 16, 1899, p. 1534. 

 ** "Deutsches Archiv fur klin. Med.," Bd. LXXXII, Nos. 3, 4, 1905; 

 "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc.," May 13, 1905, p. 1538. 

 ft "Jour. Med. Research," 1908, xix, 323. 

 tJ "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc.," June 10, LIV, No. 24, p. 1943- 



