SERUM THERAPY 123 



the immunization of animals, and the import- 

 ance of giving a sufficient amount of serum in- 

 travenously to effect the proper concentration 

 of immune bodies in the blood. 



ANTISTREPTOCOCCUS SERUM 



Scarlet Fever Scarlet fever, erysipelas, 

 smallpox, puerperal sepsis and septicemia form 

 a group of diseases in which the streptococcus 

 plays either a primary or a secondary role. 

 Accurate knowledge of scarlet fever was ob- 

 tained in the seventeenth century when Syden- 

 ham described it in a manner which permits its 

 easy recognition as the scarlet fever of today. 

 It pervaded the Old World everywhere, having 

 been recognized in England in 1861, Scotland 

 1716, Germany and Italy 1717, Denmark 1740, 

 and was introduced into North America by ship- 

 ping in the year 1735. 



The microorganism that causes scarlet fever 

 has not been isolated. Numerous investigators 

 have attempted to discover a specific cause, but 

 none of the bacteria has stood the test of study 

 by later students of the subject. It is quite gen- 

 erally agreed that the cause of most of the sec- 

 ondary complications of scarlet fever is a 



