THE INOCULATION OF BACTERIAL VACCINES AS A PRAC- 

 TICAL METHOD FOR THE TREATMENT OF BACTERIAL 

 DISEASES, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE 

 TREATMENT OF INFECTIONS DUE TO 

 THE GONOCOCCUS. 1 



By Eugene R. Whitmoke. 



None of us would think of treating a case of diphtheria without 

 antitoxin, any more than we would think of opening an abdomen without 

 taking precautions as to asepsis. It will undoubtedly be a surprise to 

 many when I say that we are all neglecting every day a well founded 

 method of treating a much larger class of bacterial diseases than the one 

 that yields to antitoxins ; and all earnest workers who are using this 

 method, opsonotherapy, are obtaining as surprisingly good results as 

 we get from antitoxin in diphtheria. 



The great amount of literature that has been produced on Ehrlich's 

 theory, the voluminous discussions on aggressins, agglutinins, preci- 

 pitins, etc., the great amount of theoretical work on serum therapy, and 

 the publication in the United States of a number of technical and 

 abstruse papers on opsonotherapy, have made the every clay physician 

 lose all interest in discussions on biologic medicine. It is quite probable 

 that too much stress has been placed on the taking of the opsonic index 

 and it is possible that the theory may have to be modified, but the 

 method of treatment based on this theory is giving results that are little 

 short of wonderful. 



Denys observed, in 1895, that in rabbits immunized against a virulent strepto- 

 coccus, the leucocytes possessed markedly increased phagocytic power toward 

 those cocci, as compared with the leucoc\'tes of a normal rabbit. Several inves- 

 tigators confirmed this finding and Mennes showed that the same thing is true 

 for the pneumococeus. Since that time considerable work has been done along 

 this line, and several methods of baeteriologic diagnosis, notably the Widal 

 reaction, have been developed on the basis of the detection of the products of 

 immunity developed in the blood as the result of auto-inoculation. 



Many investigators, notably Metchnikoff, claimed that the increased phago- 

 cytic power of the leucocytes when mixed with the immune sera was due to a 



1 Read at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Philippine Islands Medical Associa- 

 tion, Manila, P." I., February 27, 1908. 



2 Captain and assistant surgeon, United States Army ; pathologist, Division 

 Hospital, Manila. 



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