BACTERIUM ANTHRACIS 567 



Anthrax Immune Serum. Sanfelice 1 experimented with 

 the serum of dogs that had been immunized from anthrax 

 bacteria. This serum possessed immunizing and curative 

 properties, as shown by experiments upon animals. He had 

 an opportunity of trying the serum, with favorable results, 

 upon a man who had contracted anthrax. The total amount 

 of serum employed was 56 cubic centimeters. There was 

 no reaction at the point of injection of the serum. The 

 therapeutic effect of the administration of serum was a 

 general improvement in the symptoms, marked fall of the 

 temperature on the second, and complete apyrexia on the 

 third day. The effect on the local anthrax lesion manifested 

 itself in reduction and, finally, disappearance of the edema, 

 followed first by an increased swelling of the glands, which 

 decreased again subsequently. He states that the serum 

 treatment should be continued not only till the temperature 

 has fallen to normal and a diminution of the edema is 

 apparent, but also until there is marked reduction in the 

 size of the swollen lymph-glands. 



Sclavo 2 immunized a number of animals, principally 

 sheep and goats, with the two vaccines of Pasteur, followed 

 by repeated injections of increasing quantities of virulent 

 cultures. By this means he obtained an immune serum 

 which had protective as well as curative properties when 

 tested upon guinea-pigs and rabbits. 



Cicognani 3 employed Sclavo's immune serum on 12 per- 

 sons suffering from various grades of anthrax infection, 

 some of the cases being severe infections in which the prog- 

 nosis would otherwise have been very unfavorable. The 



1 Centralblatt f. Bacteriologie, Originate, 1902, Bd. xxxiii. 



2 Bulletin de 1'Institut Pasteur, T. I., 1903, p. 305. 



3 Centralblatt f. Bacteriologie, 1902, ref. Bd. 31, p. 725. 



