126 MODERN BIOLOGIC THERAPEUSIS 



streptococci for a period of about ten days. 

 Weaver advises that if the serum is to be used 

 in a curative way, it should be given early ; and 

 if one wishes to obtain a rapid effect, it should 

 be administered intravenously. The benefit 

 from the serum is shown by a prompt fall in the 

 temperature, increase in the opsonic index, re- 

 duction of leukocytosis, and by clinical improve- 

 ment in the patient's condition. 



Scarlet Fever The treatment of scarlet fever 

 by injection of Antistreptococcus Serum has 

 been practised for some time. Escherick, von 

 Pirquet, Schick and others believe there is a 

 shortening of the course, reduction of fever, and 

 general improvement in the disease. Some 

 workers have used the serum with the expecta- 

 tion of curing or influencing the fever, believ- 

 ing the disease to be due to streptococci; but 

 most men have used it to combat what they con- 

 sider a secondary infection. The patients most 

 likely to improve under serum therapy are those 

 who become severely ill after the onset of the 

 disease and the appearance of the eruption. 



Baginsky of Berlin was one of the first practi- 

 tioners to use Antistreptococcus Serum in a 

 large series of carefully studied cases; but the 



