222 PROTEIN THERAPY 



and that he might just as well discard the old idea of a negative phase 

 and the interval dosage as formerly used. He therefore gave large 

 doses (500 to 1,000 million) of staphylococcus vaccine (opsonogen) 

 intramuscularly. Injections were made daily, usually two or three 

 injections sufficing to bring the disease process to a standstill and 

 the recovery of the patient usually followed in a short time. When- 

 ever phlegmons existed they were of course opened and drained. 



The vulvovaginitis of infants and children does not yield to non- 

 specific therapy (collargol Vollbrandt). 



Normal horse serum has been used successfully as a stimulant in 

 poorly developed infants by Ferreira. It seems to whip up the slug- 

 gish metabolism and nutrition in general so that the child afterward 

 progresses more or less normally. He injected it in three cases here 

 described. One of the infants weighed only 3,750 gm. at the tenth 

 month when the serotherapy was started, and the benefit was so 

 unmistakable that it was kept up for sixteen months, the child having 

 thus been given 2,386 gm. of the serum, and its weight showing a 

 regular increase. He began with 2.5 c.c. but soon reached the dose of 

 20 c.c., repeated two or three times a week. A 3 months' babe im- 

 proved so rapidly after the serotherapy was begun that the latter 

 could soon be dropped, the improvement continuing thereafter. None 

 of the three infants was entirely breast fed. Rinz has reported similar 

 cases. 



Czerny and Eliasberg have used this effect of nonspecific therapy 

 to stimulate the general condition of children ill with tuberculosis. 

 In 26 cases so treated (daily injections of normal horse serum in 

 doses up to 2 c.c.) 9 died; in 12 there was remarkable improvement 

 despite the fact that some of the cases were tuberculosis of the peri- 

 toneum and of the lungs. 



Valagussa has made a careful study of protein therapy in acute 

 diseases in children and in his report reproduces the temperature 

 curves of the various groups treated with different proteins. In 51 

 children from 14 months to 12 years old, all with typhoid fever, the 

 intramuscular injection of peptone according to Nolf had a very fa- 

 vorable influence on the course of the disease in the majority. In 31 

 cases of influenza in children, he injected various serums and anti- 

 serums, and when this serotherapy was early, intense and continued, 

 the results were excellent. There were only 3 deaths in this group of 

 31 severe cases of influenza. His experimental research on the au- 

 tolysates of beer yeast in colloidal suspension confirmed their efficacy 

 in increasing opsonins, etc., and this was sustained in 33 cases of pneu- 

 monia or typhoid while no effect was apparent in 3 cases of whoop- 

 ing cough. 



The three types of antigens represented by peptone, horse serum 

 and organized ferments behave alike; the only difference is in the in- 

 tensity of the phenomena induced. The yeast autolysates are the 



