INFECTION AND RESISTANCE 



typhoid patients by injecting them intravenously with quantities of 

 1 to 2 c. c. of 2 per cent, solution of proteoses. 



There seems to be little doubt of the fact that the injection of 

 bacterial proteins intravenously produces a profound therapeutic ef- 

 fect without being in any but a minor degree specific. Boinet is still 

 an adherent of specific reaction, believing that his typhoid patient was 

 benefited by a rapid mobilization of antibodies and Gay had the idea 

 that a specific hyperleucocytosis was the basis of improvement. This 

 last phenomenon has been discussed in another place. We, ourselves, 

 are inclined to believe that the specific reactions have little to do 

 with the improvement in such cases and that the results are due to 

 the injection of foreign protein and perhaps proteoses, the specific 

 nature of the sources of these have little significance. We believe 

 that one of the most important factors of such procedure is the rapid 

 mobilization of leucocytosis which is not specific, in the sense of 

 Gay and Claypole. In addition to this, as Jobling and Petersen 

 suggest, the hyperpyrexia which is often observed may have some- 

 thing to do with it as well as the mobilization of ferments which 

 the last named writers have observed. They have shown that the 

 intravenous injection of bacteria and of other protein substances 

 is followed by a marked mobilization of serum protease and lipase. 

 They suggest that these factors may have considerable influence on 

 the result. 



The subject is hardly begun but it is being made the motive of 

 many researches both in the clinic and in the laboratory and un- 

 questionably the "ext few years will bring much further under- 

 standing. 



