396 APPLICATION OF METHODS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



factors necessary to complement the action of the serum. 

 His studies furthermore indicate that an essential for a 

 curative serum for pneumonia may, after all, be analogous 

 to that of curative sera for streptococcus infections that 

 is to say, the animal supplying the serum should have been 

 immunized with a strain of pneumococcus closely related 

 to that with which the patient to be treated is infected. 

 His investigations lead him to several important conclu- 

 sions, among which may be mentioned: Since pneumococci 

 may be divided into several distinct groups, it is necessary 

 to use for curative purposes a serum from an animal immu- 

 nized from a strain of pneumococci belonging to the same 

 group as that with which the patient is infected. In order 

 to be effective antipneumococcus serum must be adminis- 

 tered early and in large doses. With these facts in mind the 

 treatment of human beings suffering from pneumonia with 

 homologous, immune serum has resulted in very low mor- 

 tality. In cases so treated the bacteria in the blood are 

 destroyed and specific immune substances appear in the 

 blood very promptly after the injection of the serum. A 

 part of the action of the immune serum seems to be anti- 

 toxic. 1 



INFECTION WITH SARCINA TETRAGENA (GAFFKY), 

 MIGULA, 1900. 



SYNONYM: Micrococcus tetragenus, Gaffky, 1883. 



Should the death of the animal not occur within the first 

 twenty-eight to thirty hours after inoculation, but be post- 

 poned until between the fourth and eighth day, it may 



1 Cole, Jour. Am. Med. Assoc., 1912, lix, 693 and 1913, xli, 663. 



