480 Pneumonia 



Immune Serum. — The early experiments were remarkably con- 

 tradictory in the hands of different investigators. G. and F. Klemp- 

 erer* showed that the serum of rabbits immunized against the pneu- 

 mococcus protected animals infected with virulent cultures. When 

 applied in human medicine, the serum failed to do good. 



The treatment of pneumonia by the injection of blood-serum ' 

 from convalescent patients, tried by Hughes and Carter f, was at 

 once abandoned as useless and dangerous. 



Antipneumococcic sera were experimentally investigated by De 

 Renzi,t Washbourn,§ and Pane.|| 



McFarland and Lincoln** succeeded in immunizing a horse against 

 large doses of a virulent culture of the pneumococcus, and obtained a 

 serum of which 0.5 to 0.25 cc. protected rabbits from many times the 

 fatal' dose. In the treatment of pneumonia it gave excellent results 

 in some cases but failed in others. 



The experiments by Passlerff showed some gain over the earlier 

 work. 



With the differentiation of the various types of pneumococci 

 described above, and the discovery that the immunity reactions in- 

 duced by each were specific in character, the varying successes and 

 failures attending the employment of the earlier antipneumococcic 

 serums became intelligible. They succeeded when the serum was 

 homologous with the t3^e organism, and failed when it was not. 

 ■ There has been, therefore, a return to the therapeutic employment 

 of antipneumococcic serums, but with restrictions. It is essential 

 first to determine the t3^e of pneumococcus infecting, and then to 

 employ the appropriate serum in treatment. The most complete 

 investigations along this line have been and are being conducted by 

 Cole and his associates. J J 



Good results follow the use of the serum for type I, fairly satis- 

 factory results that for t)^e II, but for type III a satisfactory serum 

 remains to be found, and the cases resulting from the organisms of 

 this type are extremely serious and highly fatal. 



A leukocytic extract prepared by Hiss arid Zinsser§§ from an 

 aleuronat exudation in the rabbit's pleura was tried in the treat- 

 ment of pneumonia in man. 



Rosenowll || found that the injection of autolyzed pneumococci into 

 25 patients with lobar pneumonia seemed to have a beneficial effect. 



* "Berliner klin. Wochenschrift," 1891, Nos. 34 and 35. 



t "Therapeutic Gazette," Oct. 15, 1892. 



t "II Policlinico," Oct. 31, 1986, Supplement. 



§ "Brit. Med. Jour.," Feb. 27, 1897, p. 510. 



II "Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," May 29, 1897, xxi, 17 and 18, p. 664. 

 ** "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc," Dec. 16, 1899, P- iS34- 

 ft "Deutsches Archiv fiir klin. Med.," Bd. 1905; Lxxxn, Nos. 3, 4, "Jour. 

 Amer. Med. Assoc," May 13, 1905, p. 1538- 



tt "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc," 1913, lxi, 663; "N. Y. Med. Jour.," 1915, ci, 

 No. I, p. I and p. 59. . 



§§ "Jour. Med. Research," 1908, xrx, 323. 



nil "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc," June 20, xiv, No. 24, p. 1943. 



