VACCINE-THERAPY 147 



may be, it is clearly one for careful bacteriological in- 

 vestigation at the outset. 



Lignieres in 1897 discovered a bacillus of the pasteurella 

 group which he called the " coccobacillus," and which he 

 considered to be the causative organism of catarrh, bron- 

 chitis, pneumonia, strangles, purpura hemorrhagica, and 

 by its action upon the mucosa, and through it the system, 

 depressing the tissues locally, and the constitution generally , 

 that the more pathogenic bacteria gain a footing, with 

 serious functional and organic consequences, after which 

 the coccobacilli are supposed to drop into insignificance. 



Be this as it may, we know for a fact that in typical 

 pneumonias mixed infections are the rule. 



As one is generally called in to see the disease in its 

 acute form, it is obvious there is little time for delay, and a 

 stock mixed vaccine, preferably polyvalent, should be 

 injected at the outset. This will give the immunizer time 

 to make an autogenous vaccine, and this rule we rigidby 

 carry out in practice. 



The phenomena after injection are practically the same 

 as in bronchitis, and in point of fact the two diseases run a 

 close parallel, so much so that a bronchitis at any moment 

 may merge into a pneumonia, constituting broncho-pneu- 

 monia. We strongly believe the verminous pneumonias 

 one sees in cattle and sheep derive their fatal consequences, 

 not so much from pulmonary inflammations due to the 

 irritation of these parasites as to the invasion of pathogenic 

 bacteria at a later stage of the disease, and in such cases 

 as these we have isolated staphylococci, streptococci, and 

 diplococci. 



When a pneumonia is running a very acute course, with 

 a high temperature, it is strongly advisable to begin with 

 a very small initial dose ; and the reason is obvious : after 

 a vaccine injection the opsonic cycle drops (negative 

 phase), and the temperature rises; conversely, with a rise 

 of the opsonic cycle (positive phase) the temperature 

 drops ; but if the temperature is naturally high during the 



