SKIN DISEASES 231 



treatment by vaccines, and the treatment of acne and of furunculosis 

 became more or less the special field of the vaccinotherapist. Sero- 

 logical procedures, too, such as that of autoserotherapy in psoriasis, 

 have had their advocates. The fact that the results could be judged 

 quite objectively has made this field one of interest and value. 



Linser in working with the dermatoses of pregnancy found that 

 the injection of serum (normal) was at times followed by marked 

 improvement and the application was extended to urticaria, purpuras, 

 strophulus, pruritus and related conditions where vascular altera- 

 tions might be surmised as the basis of the pathology. Zieler, Bingel, 

 Henck, Lowenberg and others have reported results that were con- 

 firmatory. Later psoriasis came to be selected for treatment of this 

 kind and a number of American observers have reported their ob- 

 servations with this method of therapy. (Lit. by Luithlen.) 



Quite a number of nonspecific procedures have been applied in 

 the therapeutics of skin diseases in recent years. The use of au- 

 togenous serum injections in psoriasis was occasionally followed by a 

 degree of improvement, although the method was too cumbersome to 

 come into popular use. Perry, however, substituted normal horse 

 serum for autogenous serum with satisfactory results. From 6 to 9 

 injections were necessary to produce therapeutic effects. 



Milk injections were used shortly after their introduction by 

 Schmidt and others. That tuberculin would cause the secondary 

 lesions of syphilis to undergo involution was reported by Blach, while 

 Scholz has discussed the fact that tuberculosis of the skin reacts to 

 injections of trichophytin as well as to a variety of other substances. 

 Engmann and McGarry began the use of typhoid vaccine in the 

 treatment of a variety of skin diseases, among them a few syphilids, 

 exfoliative dermatitis, lupus erythematosis and psoriasis. Engmann 

 and McGarry made use of typhoid vaccine in dosage of from 75 to 

 500 million. 



Scully in 1917 reported on the treatment of several cases of 

 psoriasis with injections of typhoid vaccine, 8 cases being treated with 

 injections varying from 75 to 100 million organisms. The results were 

 not very satisfactory; Scully noted that the effect of the injections 

 on the temperature and leukocyte curve was not as marked in these 

 skin cases as it had been in the cases of arthritis treated by him. 

 Rezende's reports show the prompt and radical cure of extensive 

 psoriasis under "protein shock" treatment. It was in the form of 20 

 c.c. of normal horse serum, injected into the abdominal wall. An 

 injection of 10 c.c. two days before had not induced an appreciable 

 reaction, but the 20 c.c. caused fever for five days, reaching 39.6 C. 

 (103.5 F.) the third day. By the eighth or tenth day the eruption 

 had practically subsided. 



These observers used rather severe reactions; it is possible that 

 more satisfactory results would be obtained when, with smaller doses, 



