CHAPTER XI 



INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



ANTHRAX 



The treatment of anthrax by means of injections of normal beef 

 serum is a procedure inaugurated by Kraus and his associates, and 

 has been discussed by them in a series of articles. They use beef 

 serum twice heated to 56 C. for 30 minutes and inject from 30 to 

 50 c.c. or more intravenously or intramuscularly. According to Kraus' 

 recent address, over 380 cases have been treated by him with this 

 method with a mortality of less than 6.2%, as contrasted with the 

 mortality of about 10% with expectant treatment. The injections 

 are made repeatedly, usually in 12 hour intervals, although as a rule 

 not more than three injections are necessary. Serum sickness has 

 seldom been observed. 



Solari reports the results in 6 cases, all of which recovered. Langon 

 treated 13 with similarly satisfactory results. Lignieres, however, was 

 not able to confirm these findings. 



Recently several experimental studies have been reported dealing 

 with the problem, including those of Turro, of v. Hutyra and Maninger, 

 Gerlach, Kraus and Beltrami and of Kolmer, Wanner and Koehler. 

 The latter observers were able to determine some degree of bacteri- 

 cidal property in the normal beef serum, but hardly sufficient to ac- 

 count for the marked clinical effect induced by the serum injections. 

 Heretofore it had been assumed by a number of clinicians that the 

 effect of the beef serum might be due to the content of natural anti- 

 anthrax amboceptors in the serum of the animals used for injection, 

 because of the possibility of a degree of immunity present in the 

 serum of cattle where anthrax is prevalent. 



v. Hutyra and Maninger's tabulated results show that no pro- 

 tection was afforded rabbits inoculated with anthrax by treatment 

 with normal beef, horse or sheep serum. 



DIPHTHERIA AND DIPHTHERIA CARRIERS 



One of the most remarkable reports concerning the application of 

 nonspecific methods in therapy has been that of Bingel, which has 

 created considerable discussion because it throws doubt on the spe- 

 cific value of our most widely used and most representative of specific 

 sera, namely diphtheria antitoxin. 



Bingel treated 471 cases of diphtheria with diphtheria antitoxin 



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