CHAPTER XXXI 

 SERUM THERAPY (Continued) 



NORMAL SERUM THERAPY 



THE field of serum therapy has been extended in recent years by the 

 successful use of normal serum in the treatment of various pathologic 

 conditions, particularly the hemorrhagic diseases, some toxicoses of preg- 

 nancy, and certain skin affections. 



While human blood has also been administered, usually by direct 

 transfusion, in the treatment of pernicious anemia, the leukemias, and 

 pseudoleukemia, permanent good results have not been secured, al- 

 though the immediate effects, owing probably to the introduction of 

 large numbers of normal erythrocytes, may be satisfactory. 



NORMAL SERUM IN THE TREATMENT OF HEMORRHAGE 

 Numerous reports by Welch, 1 John, 2 Franz, 3 Nohlia, 4 Reichard, 5 

 Perkins, 6 Claybrook, 7 and others have shown that injections of normal 

 human, horse, or rabbit serum are of considerable value in the treat- 

 ment of melena neonatorum, hemophilia, purpura hcemorrhagica, hem- 

 orrhagic retinitis, intestinal bleeding in typhoid fever and in connection 

 with cirrhosis of the liver, pulmonary tuberculosis, in some cases of uterine 

 hemorrhage, and in surgical operations upon icteric persons. Barringer 8 

 has reported the successful treatment, by injections of fresh normal 

 human serum, of unilateral kidney hemorrhage in a hemophiliac, and 

 advises that this simple treatment should be tried in similar cases of 

 varicose veins of the renal papilla. Levison 9 has reported the successful 

 checking of hemorrhage from the urinary bladder following a simple op- 



1 Amer. Jour. Obst. and Dis. of Women, etc., 1912, Ixv, No. 412. 



2 Munch, med. Wochenschr., 1912, lix, No. 4. 



3 Munch, med. Wochenschr., 1913, lix, 2905. 



4 La Presse M&Iicale, 1913, xxi, No. 20. 



6 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1912, lix, 1539. 



6 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1912, lix, 1539. 



7 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1912, lix, 1540. 



8 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc , 1912, lix, 1538. 



9 Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1913, Ix, 721. 



772 



