242 The Philippine Journal of Science 1923 



Alston (l) treated a small series of yaws cases in 1911 with 

 salvarsan. The supply of the drug being limited, he tried the 

 effect of injecting serum taken from cases of yaws several 

 days after the injection of salvarsan. Pronounced improvement 

 occurred and, what is more surprising, serum collected from 

 the cases treated with serum produced beneficial results on injec- 

 tion into yaws patients. Such a striking phenomenon is of dis- 

 tinct interest immunologically. It is very suggestive in certain 

 aspects of the occurrence in vivo of the d'Herrelle phenomenon. 



Two papers were published by Alston. In the first, the 

 striking improvement following the injection of serum was 

 noted. In the second paper Alston stated that all of the cases 

 treated with serum improved for two or three weeks. There- 

 after they either remained stationary or became worse; but he 

 expressed the belief that, if the injection of serum had been con- 

 tinued, the patients would probably have gone on to complete 

 cure. These papers have been misquoted in the literature, the 

 1 being given that actual cures were obtained. How- 

 1 the standpoint of immunology, striking improvement 

 would be of great importance. 



The details of Alston's work are as follows: Salvarsan (606) 

 was given to adults in the secondary stage of yaws in full doses 

 intramuscularly. Four to five days later, a cantharides blister 

 was applied to two cases and the resulting serum was collected. 

 This serum was injected (perhaps intramuscularly) in several 

 yaws patients, in quantities of 16 cubic centimeters for the 

 adult dose. Improvement was noted fully as rapidly as after 

 salvarsan, changes being noticeable in some cases after sixteen 

 hours. 



A second group of yaws cases was injected with salvarsan, 

 and serum collected from them produced rapid improvement 

 when injected in yaws patients. The cases receiving serum 

 were blistered with cantharides, and the resulting fluid was 

 injected into two boys in a dosage of 8 cubic centimeters each. 

 Improvement commenced promptly. Alston conducted several 

 control experiments, the more-important results being that (a) 

 blister fluid from normal persons and (6) from untreated yaws 

 cases showed no beneficial effect, and (c) the heated serum from 

 treated yaws cases was efficacious even after boiling. Rost(iO) 

 supplied the salvarsan for this work and observed the cases 

 treated with serum. He confirms the striking improvement 

 noted by Alston. 



