SERUM THERAPY 99 



blindness, and various paralyses, which attend the 

 cases that recover without the serum. The mortality 

 has been reduced from 65 to 80 per cent, without the 

 use of the serum to 18 to 25 per cent, when the serum 

 has been administered. 



Infantile Paralysis. While the germ of this disease 

 remains unidentified, Flexner has been able to transmit 

 the infection from one monkey to another; has demon- 

 strated that flies may carry the virus from one monkey 

 to another; and, lastly, has perfected a serum with 

 which he is able to render monkeys immune to the 

 virus of the disease which is found to exist in the spinal 

 cord, the nasal secretions, etc., of the animals. This 

 serum is not at this writing perfected for use in the hu- 

 man being, but there seems every reason to believe 

 that it soon will be. 



Typhoid Antitoxin. Chantemesse, of Paris, has suc- 

 ceeded in isolating a typhoid toxin and rendering horses 

 immune by injections of increasing doses of the toxin. 

 He has thus been able to produce an antitoxin with 

 which he claims to have reduced the hospital mortality 

 of typhoid from 18 to 4 per cent. 



Owing to the difficulty encountered in the manufac- 

 ture of this serum and its expense, it is not much used 

 as yet, but there seems no doubt that its use is of con- 

 siderable value in the treatment of this disease. 



Bubonic Plague Antitoxin (Yersin's Serum). The 

 method of preparation of this serum is very similar to 



