116 PROTEIN THERAPY 



nously) with from one to three injections. The cases included mod- 

 erately severe incipient cases with severe hoarseness and beginning 

 bronchial stenosis without secretion; severe cases with croupous in- 

 flammation extending from the pharynx deep into the bronchial tree, 

 some of them already complicated by pneumonia; as well as older 

 cases with severe bronchorrhea (with as much as 3 liters of se- 

 cretion per day) with evident peribronchitis, pneumonia, abscesses 

 and in some instances lung gangrene. It is natural that in 

 these latter cases the injection had little or no effect and that the 

 most satisfactory results were achieved in those of the first category. 

 Inasmuch as a spontaneous recovery is, however, very common in 

 this class of patients this result was to be expected. It was in the 

 second class of patients, however, that the most convincing evidence 

 as to the value of the injections and this not only in my own 

 estimation but in that of my attending colleagues as well was 

 forthcoming. In from 6 to 10 hours after the injection the first 

 favorable results of the injection were to be noted, first in a diminu- 

 tion of the stenotic symptoms lessening of the cyanosis, improve- 

 ment of respiration, diminution of the cough and a freer secretion. 

 Very instructive was the solution of a membrane that had been 

 present in the pharynx of a patient and which could be observed 

 readily. And to this local effect, which was of far-reaching thera- 

 peutic benefit in the further progress of the lung pathology, as well 

 as indirectly on the circulation, there was added, sometimes only 

 after two or more injections, a more or less pronounced critical drop 

 in the temperature curve, an effect the origin of which one may ex- 

 plain in a variety of ways. I unfortunately have not been able to 

 tabulate the results as compared to cases not treated with injections 

 because of fortuitous circumstances. 



"The success, which surely cannot be specific in any way, corre- 

 sponds to experience gained with nonspecific injections in other dis- 

 eases and the effect on the pathological process is similar: a marked 

 local effect on the more or less severely inflamed mucous membrane 

 of the respiratory tract with an acceleration of the dissolution of 

 membranes, a cleaning of ulcerative processes and perhaps an in- 

 hibition of inflammatory processes just beginning. The success was 

 so frequent and apparent that chance was to be excluded. 



"On the skin lesions the injections seemed to have no effect. With 

 collargol intravenously injected, I gained the impression that ef- 

 fects similar, but not so striking, were to be obtained, and it 

 may be of interest to note that Aschoff obtained comparable re- 

 sults in the treatment of gas poisoning by injecting diphtheria anti- 

 toxin." 



General Inflammations of Bacterial Origin. So much for the 

 therapeutic effect to be observed on local pathological processes. 

 When we deal with general infections we meet conditions less 



