November 22, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



699 



of the human specimens of spinal cords 

 submitted to them for study about one half 

 could be inoculated successfully into 

 monkeys and less than this number coiild 

 be propagated through successive animals. 

 In America all the original specimens were 

 successfully inoculated, but certain samples 

 were far less active than others. At the 

 beginning many of the inoculated monkeys 

 survived the infection, sometimes with, 

 sometimes without enduring paralysis of 

 leg or arm. Later, fewer survived, and 

 after many passages of the virus from 

 monkey to monkey all became infected and 

 all succumbed. The Swedish virus of 1911 

 appears to be the most powerful yet stud- 

 ied. This is indicated by the fact that sa- 

 line washings of the nose and throat and in- 

 testine could be inoculated successfully, 

 after removal of all bacteria through fil- 

 tration, in nearly every instance.^^ In 

 America it has been difficult to procure in- 

 fection with these materials, from which 

 it has been concluded that the virus dis- 

 plays a degree of infectiousness for mon- 

 keys. There are reasons for supposing that 

 similar variations exist for man. 



We may not, and probably shall not 

 know certainly whether this variability is 

 restricted to the quality of virulence or 

 whether true types or races of the virus 

 exist until artificial cultivation has been 

 accomplished. Bacteriology has been sing- 

 ularly enriched recently by discoveries re- 

 lating to biological types of certain mi- 

 crobes; and practical medicine is destined 

 to benefit largely by the strong light which 

 they have thrown upon perplexing ques- 

 tions of specific therapeutics. I am 

 tempted to lead you aside a little way into 

 this subject just because it is so full of sug- 

 gestion and promise, and not merely with 

 promise, since the fruits of discovery are 

 being already tasted. 



^' Kling, Wernstedt, and Pettersson, loc. cit. 



The pneumococcus causes many kinds of 

 inflammation and one typical disease that 

 prevails everywhere, namely, acute lobar 

 pneumonia. Not infrequently there at- 

 tend the pneumonia, and sometimes there 

 appear independently such inflammations 

 as peritonitis, pleuritis and meningitis, 

 caused also by the pneumococcus. Now 

 pneumococci possess in common biological 

 features regarded usually as sufficient to 

 distinguish them; namely, form, staining 

 properties, growth, virulence and solubil- 

 ity in bile salts. But they have another 

 quality that serves to distinguish them 

 more finely, revealing different types among 

 apparently similar organisms. By testing 

 pneumococci from many different sources 

 against an immune serum prepared with a 

 single kind of the coccus, it has been found 

 that the cocci are not all alike but that a 

 predominant type and several subsidiary 

 types occur in nature.^" Such a serum pre- 

 pared with a given type of pneumococcus 

 is neutralizing for that one alone, and for 

 no other. The clinical reports on the anti- 

 pneumococcus serum employed as a cura- 

 tive agent are contradictory, and one cause 

 for this is now apparent. 



Pneumococcus meningitis can be pro- 

 duced in monkeys by injecting subdurally, 

 by lumbar puncture, a virulent culture of 

 pneumococcus ; it is invariably fatal. Anti- 

 pneumococcus serum alone injected sub- 

 durally can change the outcome very little. 

 But this infection is subject to combined 

 chemo- and serum-therapy in which the 

 chemical agent consists of sodium oleate 

 that alone attacks and dissolves the pneu- 

 mococcus. Acting separately, in the body, 

 sodium oleate can accomplish little; it re- 



^^ Neuf eld and Handel, Zeitsclirift fiir Immuni- 

 tdtsforschung, Originale, 1909, III., 159; Arheiten 

 aus dem Tcaiserlichen Gesundheitsamte, 1910, 

 XXXIV., 293; Berliner Tclinische Wochenschrift, 

 1912, XLIX., 480. 



