XIX 



BACTERIAL INOCULATION 



PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING INOCULATION THERAPY— PREP- 

 ARATION OF BACTERINS— AUTOGENOUS VERSUS HET- 

 EROGENEOUS PREPARATIONS— CLINICAL SYMPTOMS 

 VERSUS OPSONIC INDEX IN CONTROL OF TREATMENT 



Principles Underlying Therapeutic Inoculation. 

 — It has been elsewhere stated that bacterial inocula- 

 tions operate by stimulation of tissue cells, after sub- 

 cutaneous, intramuscular, or intravenous injection, 

 to the production of specific antibodies, be they named 

 agglutinins, bacteriolysins, opsonins, or what not. 

 From their source, they are taken up by the Ij^mph 

 iand blood-serum and distributed throughout the body. 

 In the morbid process their action is to sensitize the 

 invading bacterin, whereby they become more readily 

 devoured by certain leucocytes, hence phagocytosis is 

 promoted, or the antibodies by virtue of their lytic 

 properties attack their specific bacteria, resulting in 

 their disintegration (bacteriolysins), and tissue re- 

 pair is favorably influenced. 



A patient smitten by an acute infection is the 

 victim of an inoculation of living bacteria (antigen). 

 If his resistance be poor and the virulence of the in- 

 vading microbe be great, he is prone to die; if his re- 

 sistance be par or better, and the bacterium relatively 



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