THE NONSPECIFIC AGENTS 21 



Cerebrospinal Fluid. v. Zielinski has published results obtained 

 in the treatment of typhus fever with subcutaneous and intravenous 

 injections of cerebrospinal fluid drawn from the patient. The dose 

 was usually 15 c.c. and he claims to have obtained good results from 

 such injections. 



Joint Fluid. Dufour and Debray announce that the fluid from a 

 gonococcus process in a joint answers all the requirements for an 

 efficient and harmless autogenous vaccine when injected subcutane- 

 ously. There is no need to heat or sterilize the fluid; they injected 

 it under the skin of the thigh, and state that the general symptoms, 

 and the general and localized pain rapidly subsided, and the tem- 

 perature gradually declined in their three cases. The effect on the 

 urethral and vaginal processes could not be determined as local meas- 

 ures had been tried there as usual. 



The Local Effects of Serum, of Normal Salt Solution and of lodid 

 Injections. The treatment of wounds and of local tissue inflamma- 

 tion by means of local injections of serum, homologous as well as 

 foreign, is a more recent development. Miiller has discussed the effect 

 and the possibilities and Wright in his studies on local tissue resistance 

 to infection has also made use of this method. When so employed 

 in cellular inflammation the injection is followed by marked ameliora- 

 tion of the local symptoms, pain, tension and swelling being markedly 

 diminished. The local injection of physiological salt solution is said 

 to be followed by a similar analgesia. The method has been most 

 extensively employed in the treatment of gonorrheal complications, 

 especially epididymitis. 



As a rule 10 c.c. of serum or salt solution are injected into the 

 scrotum near the site of the inflammation. 



These methods are related to Bier's method of treatment by 

 passive hyperemia. As a matter of fact Bier has called attention 

 to the effect of foreign protein injections in infectious diseases in 

 a very early paper and has always been an advocate of related 

 measures. 



NATIVE PROTEINS 



Von den Velden seems to have been one of the first to have used 

 native protein injections in therapy with the distinct thought under- 

 lying this procedure that he was thereby stimulating certain nonspe- 

 cific fermentative reactions in the body which would be useful in in- 

 creasing the general resistance to disease. He found for instance that 

 the vasomotor activity around the local pathological area was in- 

 creased, that there was evidently an increase in the lymph flow, of 

 the leukocytic reaction, etc. 



Ovalbumin and Seralbumin. Von der Velden at first used solu- 

 tions of ovalbumin and seralbumin in 5% and 10% solution. This he 



