CHAPTER XXVIII 



GERMICIDAL SERA 



Normal Sera. As early as 1872 Lewis and Cunningham demon- 

 strated the fact that bacteria injected into the circulation rapidly dis- 

 appear. In the blood of twelve animals which had been given such injec- 

 tions, bacteria could be found after six hours in only seven. In a 

 second series of thirty, bacteria were found after twenty-four hours 

 in the blood of only fourteen, and in a third experiment with seven- 

 teen animals, bacteria were found in only two when the examination 

 was made within from two to seven days. 



In 1874, Traube and Gscheidlen found that arterial blood taken, 

 under aseptic precautions, from the jugular vein of rabbits into which 

 a small amount of a putrifying fluid had been injected forty-eight 

 hours previously, failed to undergo decomposition for months. They 

 attributed the germicidal properties of blood to the ozonized oxygen. 

 Grohmann found that anthrax bacilli decrease in virulence on being 

 kept in plasma. 



In 1887, Fodor found that anthrax bacilli rapidly decrease in 

 numbers when injected into the circulation. He then took blood from 

 the heart with a sterile pipette, inoculated it with anthrax, kept it at 

 incubator temperature and plated it out at intervals. He found that 

 the number decreased for some hours and then multiplied abundantly. 



In 1888 Nuttall found that defibrinated blood from various species 

 of animals, sheep, rabbits, mice and pigeons, destroys both pathogenic 

 and non-pathogenic bacteria. He also confirmed the finding of Fodor 

 that after a time the blood loses its germicidal action and becomes a 

 suitable culture-medium in which the bacteria multiply abundantly. In 

 his studies, Nissen reached the following conclusions: 1. The addition 

 of small quantities of salt solution or bouillon to the blood does not 

 destroy its germicidal properties. 2. Cholera and typhoid bacilli are 

 easily destroyed by fresh blood. 3. In a given volume of blood there is 

 a maximum number of bacilli, which can be destroyed. 4. Blood, the 

 coagulability of which has been destroyed by the injection of peptone, 



