138 MODERN BIOLOGIC THERAPEUSIS 



which had been treated by the subcutaneous in- 

 jection of a serum which he had prepared. 

 Flexner laid a rather more thorough basis for 

 therapy in careful animal experimentation. He 

 produced the typical disease in monkeys by in- 

 traspinous inoculation of meningococci, and 

 then saved the animals from death by following 

 the infection with the injection of serum intra- 

 spinously six hours later. The results with the 

 serum produced at the Rockefeller Institute 

 have since proved to be uniformly favorable. 

 The serum was successfully used by Dr. Claude 

 Ker of Edinburgh and Dr. Gardner Eobb of Bel- 

 fast. The method of intraspinal administration 

 of the serum, after the removal of cerebrospinal 

 fluid, was the method finally adopted by Flexner 

 as most favorable, and this is the method in 

 current use today. 



Results Since the application of serum ther- 

 apy, the mortality from cerebrospinal meningi- 

 tis has been reduced from 90 per cent to about 

 15 per cent. In the Texas epidemic of 1912 the 

 mortality in some of the small towns was as low 

 as 10 per cent. 



RATIONALE OF SERUM TREATMENT 



The present recognized treatment of epidemic 



