INFECTIOUS DISEASES 203 



Schmidt and Kraus report very remarkable results following milk 

 injections in early tuberculosis; Klemperer has gone over a somewhat 

 larger series of cases but could not confirm their findings. 



Czerny and Eliasberger have attacked the problem from another 

 point of view. They have taken a series of very emaciated tuber- 

 culous children (26) and have given them frequent injections (daily 

 injections of from % to 1 c.c.) of horse serum. While the injections 

 have no direct effect on the tuberculous process, 12 of the children 

 showed a striking improvement in general condition. This effect on 

 the nutrition and on the general condition of children has been re- 

 ported by other observers as well. 



Tuberculous Meningitis. Hollis and Pardee call attention to the 

 use of intraspinal injections of foreign protein (they used antimen- 

 ingitis serum) in the treatment of tuberculous meningitis, reporting 

 the recovery of 5 patients out of a series of 8. They regard the therapy 

 as nonspecific, and call attention to the fact that the use of serum in 

 the treatment of syphilis of the spinal cord although combined with 

 a specific drug must also be regarded as a form of therapy based 

 on the irritation of the meninges, with the therapeutic effect following 

 as a result of the reaction. 



Experimentally Baldwin and L'Esperance have noticed some in- 

 crease in fibrosis in tuberculous guinea pigs after treatment with 

 typhoid vaccine. Bohme, using a variety of nonspecific substances, 

 vaccinurin, pus, influenza bacilli, streptococci and milk injections, 

 could determine no alteration in the course of tuberculosis in the 

 guinea pig. 



TYPHUS FEVER 



During the course of the war a number of investigators have had 

 the opportunity of trying nonspecific therapeutic agents in typhus 

 fever. These have included deutero-albumose, salt solution, colloidal 

 metals, convalescent serum and vaccines of various kinds. 



Holler found that his method of therapy daily injections of 

 deutero-albumose intravenously was most efficacious in typhus when 

 he was able to begin the treatment within the first two days after 

 the onset; in that case he was frequently able to terminate the disease 

 by crisis. When given later, while it shortened the course of the 

 disease and had a pronounced effect in modifying toxicity, the re- 

 sults were not so striking. 



In fifteen untreated cases the mortality was about 50%. In 50 

 treated cases only three patients died. 



Equally favorable results have been described by Tagle, who 

 began such therapy on the basis of Nolfs work, and by Opazo. 

 Tagle applied the injections in 59 cases of typhus. Aside from one 

 patient that died in less than forty-eight hours, the mortality was 

 about 5 per cent. He declares that the absence of all ill effects 



