ii2 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



that the doses of vaccine were well borne and did not 

 even temporarily reduce the rabbits' resistance to other 

 infections. These experiments therefore pointed the 

 way to a similar series of observations in man. 



On the basis of these results the vaccine has been of- 

 fered to several groups of men in the United States 

 Army. A very wide and extended experience will be 

 necessary, however, to determine its value, and at 

 present nothing definite can be said as to its efficacy in 

 the prevention of influenza. 



CONCLUSIONS. As the result of this investigation 

 at the Rockefeller Institute a hitherto undiscovered 

 organism, Bacterium pneumosintes, has been isolated 

 from the nose and throat secretions of influenza pa- 

 tients in the early hours of the epidemic disease. It is 

 filterable, anaerobic, resistant, and pathogenic for rab- 

 bits, in which it induces a typical infection seemingly 

 identical with epidemic influenza in man. The signifi- 

 cant features of this experimental infection are the 

 changes in the blood cells and the production of a 

 characteristic injury to the lungs associated with a de- 

 fect in their resistance to secondary invasion with 

 common pathogenic bacteria. 



All the strains of Bacterium pneumosintes have similar 

 properties, indicating a common source. Animals 

 subjected to a primary infection, or injected with living 

 or killed organisms, are immune to subsequent injec- 

 tion. The killed bacteria induce specific antibody for- 

 mation even when injected subcutaneously in doses well 

 tolerated by man. The blood serum of recovered in- 

 fluenza patients contains antibodies for Bacterium 



