CHAPTER X 

 GONORRHEA AND ITS COMPLICATIONS 



The intravenous injection of vaccines in the treatment of gonor- 

 rheal complications is a procedure that antedates by a few years the 

 more general application that we now consider under the subject of 

 protein therapy. Bruck and Sommer had in 1912 and 1913 made use 

 of a polyvalent gonococcus vaccine for intravenous injections in a 

 variety of complications, such as arthritis, epididymitis and acute 

 prostatitis, with remarkable results. Within certain limits their re- 

 sults paralleled the severity of the systemic response that followed 

 on the vaccine injection. The reaction that was observed consisted 

 of the usual rise in temperature, a leukocytosis, occasional chill and 

 sweating, etc. It will be recalled that previously the morphological 

 similarity of the gonococcus and the meningococcus had led Herescu 

 and Strominger to use antimeningococcus serum therapeutically 

 against gonococcus infections. 



That fever or at any rate intercurrent infections have at times 

 a decided effect in altering the course of a venereal infection and its 

 complications had been noted for a number of years and had been dis- 

 cussed by Finger, Gohn and Schlagenhaufer in 1895. In 1916 Miiller 

 and Weiss reported excellent results in gonorrheal complications with 

 their intergluteal injections of milk and a nucleinate, similar to those 

 of Bruck and Sommer. A number of workers at once made prelimi- 

 nary trials of the method in this clinical field, including Schmidt, v. 

 Tanner, Friedlander, Elschnig, Luithlen, etc. 



Smith in this country had independently come to a similar point 

 of view in the treatment of patients suffering from gonorrheal compli- 

 cations in using specific sera or normal horse serum. Some of these 

 became more or less sensitized to the serum and on further in- 

 jection, responded with a decided general reaction. These patients 

 in particular were the ones that gave the most promising clinical 

 results, so that Smith emphasized the importance of this state of sensi- 

 tization and the coincident temperature rise in the therapeutic result 

 obtained. The experimental research reported by Arloing, Dufourt and 

 Langeron confirms the clinical observation that it may be possible 

 to cure certain infections by inducing an anaphylactic shock. The 

 research was done on guinea-pigs inoculated with pyocyaneus 

 cultures. Even a slight shock was enough to arrest the infectious 

 process. The clinical cure was accompanied by the destruction of 

 the germs in the blood and by the acquirement of immunity. 



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