Specific Therapy 647 



Government began, on March 10, 1911, the mobilization of 

 regiments of the United States Army on the Mexican fron- 

 tier near San Antonio, Texas. In order to prevent the sad 

 experiences of the Spanish-American War, in which the 

 troops suffered terribly from typhoid fever, the Secretary 

 of War determined that the entire command should be im- 

 munized against the disease. Many of the soldiers arriving 

 on the ground had already been immunized, the remainder 

 were at once given the necessary injections upon arrival. 

 The mean strength of the command at San Antonio was 12,000 

 up to June 30, 1911, a period approximating four months. 

 During all that time there were only 2 cases of typhoid fever 

 in the encampment, i in an uninoculated civilian teamster 

 and i in an inoculated soldier. Both cases recovered. The 

 soldier suffered from so mild an attack that it was over in 

 sixteen days and probably would not have been diagnosed had 

 not a blood-culture been made. During the four months 

 from March loth to June 3oth the typhoid fever was 

 prevalent in San Antonio, there being 49 cases with 19 

 deaths.* 



The prophylactic used was prepared from a specially se- 

 lected strain of Bacillus typhosis grown on agar-agar in Kolle 

 flasks for twenty-four hours. The growth was washed off 

 with normal salt solution, killed by heating at 55 to 56 C. in 

 a water-bath, standardized by counting the bacteria accord- 

 ing to the method of Wright, and after being diluted with salt 

 solution, 0.25 per cent, of trikresol was added. One cubic cen- 

 timeter of the finished prophylactic contained i ,000,000,000 

 bacilli. The first dose injected contained 500,000,000 bacilli, 

 the second and third, given after ten and twenty days, con- 

 tained 1,000,000,000 each. The injections caused little in- 

 convenience either locally or constitutionally. Only i case 

 had fever, chills, and sweats, and this was the only case requir- 

 ing treatment in the hospital. It subsequently developed 

 that this soldier was suffering from early tuberculosis, 

 which may explain the untoward symptoms from which he 

 suffered. 



Specific Therapy. Animals can be immunized to this 

 bacillus, and then, according to Chantemesse and Widal, de- 

 velop antitoxic blood capable of protecting other animals. 



* ''Report of the Surgeon-General of the United States Army to the 

 Secretary of War," 1911, Washington, D. C. 



