CHAPTER XL 



PRINCIPLES OF THE ANTI-ANAPHYLACTIC 



TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASES 



BY ENTERO-ANTIGENS. 



FROM MetchnikofF s work on intestinal flora it could be 

 deduced that the digestive tract, and especially the large 

 intestine must be considered as the principal source of all 

 kinds of infections and of chronic intoxications. Metchnikoff 

 thought that these intoxications were due to the develop- 

 ment and to the secretions of certain bacilli, and that by 

 modifying the reaction of the medium in which they lived, it 

 would be possible to prevent their multiplication. He 

 endeavored to obtain this result by causing in the intestine 

 an acid reaction by means of the bacteria of curdled milk. 



Allen, 1 S. Marbais, 2 A. Berthelot and D. Bertrand 3 and 

 others tried to obtain the same result, i. e., the destruction 

 of poisonous intestinal bacilli, by bacteriotherapy based on 

 the " vaccinotherapy" of Al. Wright. 



Metchnikoff s idea of looking for the origin of gastro- 

 intestinal disturbances in the normal intestinal flora is prob- 

 ably very sound, and the treatment of such troubles by the 

 bacteria of curdled milk or by bacteriotherapy has often 

 given very good results; but it was found, however, at the 

 same time, that while the disease was cured, the intestinal 

 flora was not appreciably changed. 



Treatments by Bacillus bulgaricus or by intestinal bacilli 

 were therefore efficient, although the mode of action was not 

 in accordance with the theory. 



1 Vaccinotherapy, Levis, London. 



2 Bull, de la Soc. de Biol., February 20, 1915, p. 66. 



3 Vaccinotherapy in Chronic Enteritis, La Presse nied., 1917, Nos. 23 

 and 44, 



