MISCELLANEOUS DISEASES 223 



weakest and slowest in their action, but all serve to reenforce the 

 organism in its fight against the infection. There are no symptoms 

 of anaphylaxis with the yeast, aside from the local reaction, and the 

 effect on the temperature, and he commends this as a harmless means 

 to activate and augment the kataphylactic powers of the organism 

 in any and every bacterial infection. "With this extract of the cells 

 of the saccharomyces we provide a poly-antigen therapy, and we can- 

 not go amiss in treating a disease by augmenting the natural index of 

 resistance and the defensive forces." 



The largest series of infants has been treated by Plantenga (300 

 cases). These included various mar antic infants, usually with ali- 

 mentary intoxication. He injected as a rule some 30 c.c of an "anti- 

 colon" serum obtained by immunizing animals against colon bacilli. 

 The results were quite remarkable. 



More recently Putzig has also described a number of cases. He 

 found that serum injections (he used diphtheria antitoxin) in ma- 

 rantic children caused an increase in weight and an improvement in 

 the general condition and that this improvement was not a temporary 

 affair (due to water retention, etc.), but was due to a stimulation of 

 the body tissues and an actual growth of tissues. Of 7 cases 5 were 

 appreciably improved. 



