286 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



ago, showed that the serum of immunized rabbits pro- 

 tected animals inoculated with the pneumococcus. The 

 principle failed, however, when applied to human medi- 

 cine. The treatment of pneumonia by the injection of 

 blood-serum from convalescents, as tried by Hughes 

 and Carter, 1 has also been abandoned as useless and 

 dangerous. 



A more modern and refined antipneumococcic serum 

 has been investigated experimentally by Washbourne, 2 

 De Renzi, 3 and Paul. 4 



Washbourne 5 prepared an antipneumococcic serum effi- 

 cacious in protecting rabbits against ten times the fatal 

 dose of live pneumococci in doses of o. 3 c. cm. In general, 

 the lines upon which he operated were those of Behring, 

 Marmorek's work with the streptococcus furnishing most 

 of the details. A pony was subjected to immunization 

 for a period of five months, allowed to rest three or four 

 months until the live pneumococci introduced were all 

 destroyed, and then bled. Two cases of human pneu- 

 monia seem to have received some benefit from the injec- 

 tion of large doses of this serum. The serums of Pane 

 and De Reuzi were not so powerful as those of Wash- 

 bourne, requiring about 1 c.cm. to protect a rabbit. 



McFarland and Lincoln 6 have succeeded in confirming 

 the experimental work of Pane, De Renzi, and Wash- 

 bourne, and by immunizing a horse to large doses of 

 highly virulent cultures of the pneumococcus have ob- 

 tained from it a serum, of which \-\ c.cm. protected rab- 

 bits from doses of the live bacilli many times as large as 

 necessary to produce death. 



The antipneumococcic serums have not been given a 

 sufficient clinical application for us to judge what merits 

 they may have. 



1 Therapeutic Gazette, Oct. 15, 1892. 



2 Brit. Med. Journal, Feb. 27, 1897, p. 510. 

 8 II Policlinico, Oct. 31, 1896, Supplement. 



* Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk., May 29, 1897, xxi., 17 and 18, p. 664. 



5 Brit. Med. Journal, Feb. 27, 1897, p. 510. 



6 Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec. 16, 1899, p. 1534. 



