TYPHOID FEVER 69 



the therapeutic action of antigens, we can establish only an 

 empirical means which may not always be the best. 



In laboratories it would not be difficult to estimate the 

 excess of antibody in the blood of the organism, as well as 

 the degree of immunity anaphylaxis of the bacteria and by 

 always using the same antigen in exact titer one would obtain 

 essentially comparable results. In the practical medical 

 clinic all complications would very probably be avoided by 

 injecting the antigen in progressively increasing doses at 

 intervals of some minutes. The injections of dead bacteria 

 ought to be given intravenously and if the total dose was, 

 for example, 500 millions, one might begin by injecting 1, or 

 2, then in ten minutes 10 and finally 40 and 450 millions at 

 intervals of five minutes. Two successive injections, 1 of 5, 

 the other of 500 millions at ten-minute intervals might be 

 perhaps sufficient. If the principle of skepto- or tachy- 

 phylaxis is good, the technic would be easy to work out. 



Preventive Vaccination. The effects of preventive vac- 

 cination on the morbidity of typhoid are today indisputable; 

 what is not indisputable is the method of preparation of 

 vaccine and the technic of vaccination. The heated bac- 

 terial bodies of Chantemesse and Widal; the more or less 

 autolized bacteria of Vincent ; the lipovaccines of LeMoignic 

 and Pinoy may confer the same degree of immunity on the 

 organism but never lasting very long. 



It would be perhaps more interesting to try to make the 

 human organism refractory to typhoid fever as all other 

 mammals are refractory to typhoid and for that it would 

 suffice to teach it to completely digest typhoid and para- 

 typhoid bacteria as it, for example, digests plague bacilli. 

 Bacteriotherapy by mouth practiced successfully by Dr. 

 L. Fournier at the Cochin Hospital for more than three years, 

 proves indisputably that the products of bacteriolysis of 

 Eberth's bacillus are absorbed by the intestinal mucosa as 

 antigens and it is very possible to assume that one would be 

 able to stimulate complete gastro-intestinal digestion of 

 bacteria by a suitable means by causing children to ingest 

 more or less autolyzed bacterial bodies in progressively 

 increasing doses. By proceeding in this way, one would 



