Streptococcus Erysipelatis 267 



sometimes causes a rapid necrosis of the tumor tissue, 

 which can be scraped out with an appropriate instrument. 

 Numerous cases are on record in which this treatment has 

 been most efficacious ; but, although Coley still recommends 

 it and Czerny upholds it, the majority of surgeons have failed 

 to secure the desired results. 



Antistreptococcus Serum. Since 1895 considerable at- 

 tention has been bestowed upon the antistreptococcus serum 

 of Marmorek * and Gromakowsky,f which is said to act spe- 

 cifically upon streptococcus infections, both general and 

 local. Numerous cases of suppuration, septic infection, 

 puerperal fever, and scarlatina are upon record in which 

 the serum seems to have exerted a beneficial action, and it 

 may be that antiphlogistic serums will occupy an important 

 place in the medicine of the future. 



The serum is prepared by the injection of cultures of 

 living virulent streptococci into horses until a high degree 

 of immunity is attained. The serum is probably both 

 antitoxic and bacteriologic in action. 



The success following the serums of some experimenters 

 upon certain cases, and their failure and the universal 

 failure of the serums of others, has suggested that there is 

 considerable difference between different "strains" or 

 families of streptococci. To obviate this Van de Velde 

 has made a polyvalent antistreptococcus serum by using a 

 number of different cultures secured from the most diverse 

 clinical cases of streptococcus infection. Another of Tavel 

 and Moser is made by using cultures from different cases of 

 scarlatina. The use of these serums, however, has not given 

 the satisfaction expected, and at the present moment the 

 whole subject of antistreptococcus serums is debatable both 

 from the standpoint of its theoretical scientific basis and its 

 therapeutic application. 



STREPTOCOCCUS ERYSIPELATIS (FEHLEISEN"). 



The streptococcus of Rosenbach is generally thought to be 

 identical with a streptococcus described with Fehleisen| as 

 Streptococcus erysipelatis (Fig. 77). 



The streptococcus of erysipelas can be obtained in almost 



* "Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," t. ix, No. 7, July 25, 1895, p. 593. 



f "Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," t. ix, No. 7, July 25, 1895. 



J "Verhandlungen der Wiirzburger med. Gesellschaft," 1881. 



