IMMUNITY AND VACCINE THERAPY 485 



entirely destroyed. The term is also applied with questionable 

 accuracy to such substances as tuberculins and antitoxins * 

 when they are injected for therapeutic or immunizing purposes. 



The term vaccination is generally applied to the injection 

 of vaccines for prophylaxis or prevention. 



The term vaccine therapy is applied to the injection of 

 vaccines for the purpose of rapidly immunizing an individual 

 after infection has taken place. Vaccine therapy or thera- 

 peutic vaccination is simply an offshoot from prophylactic 

 vaccination. One shades insensibly into the other. The boun- 

 daries between what is called health and disease are clinically 

 undefinable. In health the body may harbor disease germs and 

 the supposed healthy may be slightly infected without being 

 aware of it. The principles underlying prophylactic vaccina- 

 tion are thus applicable to vaccine therapy. 



Vaccine therapy is being very generally employed for a 

 great variety of both acute and chronic affections. The prin- 

 ciple underlying it seems to be the rapid production of im- 

 munity. According to "Wright, this is accomplished through 

 the agency of opsonins which increase the phagocytosis. It 

 has not been demonstrated that therapeutic vaccination can 

 be generally applied with success. At present it is in the 

 experimental stage and the efficiency of the method for dis- 

 eases generally is not as yet known, f 



Three kinds of vaccines are used. (1) Autogenic vac- 

 cines which consist of heated (killed) cultures of the organism 

 which is causing the trouble and which was isolated from the 

 case. (2) Stock vaccines consisting of dead organisms of cer- 

 tain species like Micrococcus pyogenes, Streptococcus pyogenes 

 or other bacteria, and which are used in cases where the 



* For information concerning the properties of immune sera 

 and their bearing upon the question of immunity the student is re- 

 ferred to the articles by Bordet (Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur, Vol. XVIII 

 (1904) p. 593) and Muir and Browning (The Journal of Hygiene, 

 Vol. VI (1906) p. 1). 



t The current veterinary literature contains many articles on 

 the use of vaccines in the treatment of animal diseases. Most of 

 these point to success in their use. 



