AUTOSERUM THERAPY 255 



carditis, pleuritis, and meningitis. As yet not enough is known of 

 the effect of the injection upon the maladies in question to warrant 

 any definite statements. 



In the booklet on the subject which has been issued by the manu- 

 facturers the statement is made that within a year 10,000 doses of 

 the serum had been sent out for experimental purposes, and that of 

 the cases reported upon 58 per cent, showed decided benefit, and that 

 in 17 per cent, only the results had not been favorable. Future 

 investigations here also are needed to establish the actual status of 

 the treatment, which, a priori, of course, would seem logical, and 

 expecially so when combined with corresponding vaccination. 



AUTOSERUM THERAPY 



A number of investigators have suggested the administration 

 of the patient's own serum under various pathological conditions 

 upon grounds, it must be admitted, which in some cases seem rather 

 lacking in force. Gilbert and Fede thus recommend the subcutaneous 

 injection of small quantities (1 to 2 c.c.) of the patient's own exudate 

 in the treatment of tubercular peritonitis and pleurisy, and claim 

 that the absorption of the exudate is thus greatly hastened. Similar 

 results have been reported by Senator and Schniitgen. Modinos 

 reports that the injection of moderate doses (about 8 c.c.) of the 

 patient's own serum is of beneficial influence upon the course of 

 various acute infectious diseases, and cites specific cases of influenza, 

 typhoid, and Malta fever. Others have reported favorable results 

 from the injection of small doses (1 to 2 c.c.) of serum in gonorrheal 

 arthritis, and so on. 



A few years ago Hodenpyle met with an instance of carcinoma- 

 tosis associated with chylous ascites in which the disease seemed 

 to have been arrested, and in w r hich he assumed that protective 

 antibodies (cytotoxins) were present in the circulation. He used 

 this fluid in large quantities in a number of cases of cancer, and for 

 a time apparently with a beneficial effect. The results, however, 

 were not lasting, and so far as my knowledge goes none of the treated 

 patients are now living. The donor, moreover, died within a year 

 of the time the treatment of the patients was begun. Following 

 these experiments a number of investigators used the ascitic fluid 



