AUTOSERUM THERAPY 777 



cess to the parasites. For similar reasons antimeningococcic serum 

 must be injected intraspinally, because when given intravenously, the 

 plexus appears to withhold the antibodies. The same is true of tetanus 

 antitoxin. 



Shortly after the discovery of salvarsan and neosalvarsan hope was 

 entertained that these remedies, when injected intraspinally, would 

 bring the drug into direct contact with the infected tissues. Investi- 

 gations by Wechselmann, 1 Marinesco, 2 and Ellis and Swift 3 have shown, 

 however, that even minute quantities of either drug may be irritating 

 and may prove dangerous. 



Plaut 4 showed early that the serum of patients who have received 

 salvarsan exerts a definite antisyphilitic effect, whereas normal serum 

 displays no such activity. Meirowsky and Hartman 5 and Gibbs and 

 Calthrop 6 observed good results in the treatment of syphilis from sub- 

 cutaneous injections of serum from other patients who had received 

 salvarsan. Swift and Ellis 7 then showed that serum taken from a pa- 

 tient within six hours after the salvarsan was injected inhibited the 

 growth of Treponema pallidum, but that if taken before the salvarsan was 

 administered, or within from six to twenty-four hours after treatment, 

 there was no inhibition. These last-named observers also reported bene- 

 ficial effects following the intraspinal injection of salvarsanized serum, 

 with but slight irritative phenomena. Further experimental studies on 

 the spirocheticidal activity of salvarsanized serum were made by Gonder, 8 

 Castelli, 9 and especially by Swift and Ellis, 10 the last-named investiga- 

 tors also noting that heating the serum at 56 C. for half an hour mark- 

 edly increased its activity, which was due in part to the destruction of 

 some inhibiting substance. 



Shortly after this Swift and Ellis 11 published a report of the treat- 

 ment of a number of cases of tabes dorsalis and other syphilitic infec- 

 tions of the central nervous system with intraspinal injections of sal- 

 varsanized serum. In practically all these cases clinical improvement 

 was observed, with total or partial disappearance of the positive sero- 



1 "Ehrlich-Hata 606," Berlin, 1911, 11. Deut. med. Wochenschr., 1912, xxxviii, 

 1446. 



2 Diatet. u. physik. Therap., 1913, xvii, 194. 



3 Jour. Exper. Med., 1913, xviii, 428. 



4 Deut. med. Wochenschr., 1910, xxxvi, 2237. 



6 Med. Klin., 1910, vi, 1572. 6 Brit. Med. Jour., 1911, 1, 360. 



7 New York Med. Jour. 1912, xcvi, 53. 



8 Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsf., Orig., 1912, xv, 57. 



9 Zeitschr. f. Chemotherap., Orig., 1912, 1, 122 and 167. 



10 Jour. Exp. Med., 1913, xviii, 435. " Arch. Int. Med., 1913, xii, 331. 



