390 BACTERIOLOGY. 



diseases, pneumonia and cholera, in influenc- 

 ing favorably the course of the disease by other 

 active bodies, and in curing entirely without 

 the use of chemical substances of this class. 



Protective and Curative Inoculations Without 

 the Use of Microparasites or Their Products. 



Immunity may certainly in some cases be 

 obtained by other methods of treatment. 

 Wooldridge in 1888 prepared from the thymus 

 gland of the calf and from other tissues proteid 

 bodies in the form of " tissue fibrinogen " with 

 which he obtained immunity against anthrax ; 

 this sort of immunity probably depends upon 

 increased leucocytosis and the phagocytic ac- 

 tion thus made possible. Upon this action of 

 the thymus proteids also depends the fact that 

 cultures of pathogenic bacteria grown in thy- 

 mus bouillon are at times impotent. (Brieger, 

 Kitasato and Wassermann thought that the 

 thymus removed the toxic quality of the cul- 

 tures, but this is not the case.) I myself was 

 able to confer immunity against cholera by use 

 of the digestive ferments. Soluble active sper- 

 min in an alkaline medium is able to immunize 

 for the reason that it evokes a favorable leu- 

 cocytosis (Poehl). If the formation of insolu- 

 ble active spermin out of the nuclein of the 



