SEROTHERAPY 



TYPHOID VACCINE. Made from Bacillus typhosus. In some cases 

 Bacillus paratyphosus A and Bacillus paratyphosus B are also used. Ty- 

 phoid vaccine is of recognized utility in the prevention of typhoid fever. 

 The immunity produced persists in the majority of cases from two to four 

 years or longer. The vaccine is also of service in treatment of typhoid 

 carriers. In such cases an autogenous vaccine is to be preferred. The 

 same is true in the bacterial complications and sequelae of typhoid fever, 

 especially those that appear during convalescence or are prolonged into 

 that stage. 



The use of vaccine in the treatment of typhoid fever has given very 

 inconclusive results. No positive evidence of harm resulting from its 

 use has been recorded. Many clinicians, however, believe that the giving 

 of an additional amount of the toxin of the disease may turn the balance 

 against recovery in states characterized by marked toxemia. 



4. BY INJECTION or BACTERIAL AND POLLEN CONSTITUENTS. Buch- 

 ner's plasmin, obtained by submitting microorganisms to high pressure, 

 is only of experimental value. The products of bacterial autolysis also 

 come under this heading. These substances, when injected, do not cause 

 the formation of antitoxin as true toxins do, but bactericidal amboceptors 

 and agglutinins are formed. 



POLLEN EXTRACT-POLLEN VACCINE. A solution of pollen protein. 



Pollen extract is employed for the relief or prophylaxis of a common 

 type of hay fever or pollinosis. Pollen extract prepared from the pollen 

 of one plant (for instance, ragweed) is not primarily intended for use in 

 cases due to pollen from other plants, as grasses and goldenrod, though 

 persons subject to autumn catarrh frequently react to the pollen of more 

 than one species. The patient's susceptibility may be tested by rubbing 

 a small quantity of the pollen vaccine into a scratch of the skin; if the 

 patient is sensitive to that particular pollen, an urticarial wheal results. 

 To avoid systematic disturbance, it is recommended that no therapeutic 

 injections be made until the reaction from this cutaneous test has subsided 

 completely. Treatment with pollen extract has seemed to give a varying 

 degree of relief in a number of cases. In some cases the psychic element 

 seems to play a part, and in such instances it is difficult to determine to 

 what degree the good results are due to suggestion. The immunity from 

 symptoms conferred by treatment is apparently not permanent, and in 

 most cases does not last longer than a year. 



It is regarded as important that the individual dosage should be deter- 

 mined by testing, each patient's susceptibility, as sensitiveness varies 

 greatly and an overdose may cause disagreeable and alarming symptoms 

 orjpossibly death. A method used for such test is to make a series of 

 scratches on the patient's skin (it is important that these should be made 

 at 'some distance from the scratches of the first test) and to apply to these 

 scratches 25 per cent., 10 per cent., i per cent., or even weaker dilutions 





