Antitubercle Serums 727 



because the amount of immune body in the blood of tuberculous 

 patients is generally too small to enable the test to be successfully 

 applied. 



Antitubercle Serums. — Tizzoni and Centanni,* Bernheim,t 

 l*aquin,t Viquerat§and others have experimented in various ways, 

 hoping that the principles of serum therapy might apply to tuber- 

 culosis. Nothing has, however, been achieved. Maragliano's|| 

 antitubercle serum has been used in a very large number of cases in 

 human medicine, but the glittering results reported by its author 

 have not been confirmed. Behring** comments upon it by saying 

 that " Maragliano's tubercle antitoxin contains no antitoxin." 



Babes and Proca,tt Mafucci and di Vestea,tt McFarland,§§ De 

 Schweimtz,|||| Fisch,*** and Pattersonftt have all endeavored to ob- 

 tain serums of therapeutic value by immunizing animals against 

 living or dead tubercle bacilli or their products, but without success. 



From these discordant observations, the more favorable of which 

 are probably the hasty records of inadequate or incomplete experi- 

 ments, the conclusion that little is to be hoped from immune serums 

 in the treatment of tuberculosis is inevitable. 



Prophylaxis. — ^It is the duty of every physician to use every means 

 in his power to prevent the spread of tuberculous infection in the 

 households under his care. To this end patients should cease to 

 kiss the members of their families and friends ; should have individual 

 knives, forks, spoons, cups, napkins, etc., carefully kept apart — ■ 

 secretly if the patient be sensitive upon the subject — -from those of 

 the family, and scalded after each meal; should have their napkins 

 and handkerchiefs, as well as whatever clothing or bed-clothing is 

 soiled by them, kept apart from the common wash, and boiled; and 

 should carefully collect the expectoration in a suitable receptacle, 

 that is sterilized or disinfected, without being permitted to dry, as 

 it has been shown that the tubercle bacillus can remain alive in dried 

 sputum as long as nine months. The physician should also give 

 directions for disinfecting the bed-room occupied by a consumptive 

 before it becomes the chamber of a healthy person, though this should 

 be as much the function of the municipality as the disinfection 

 practised after scarlatina, diphtheria, and smallpox. 



*"Ceiitralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., 1892, Bd. xi, p. 82. 

 t "Ibid., 1894, Bd. XV, p. 654. 

 t"New York Med. Record," 1895. 



§ "Zur Gewinnung von Antituberkulin, Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., Nov. s, 

 1896. XX, Nos. 18, 19, p. 674. 



II "Berliner klin. Woclienschrift," 1895, No. 32. 

 **"Fortschritte der Med.," 1897. 

 tt "La Med. Moderne," 1896. p. 37. 

 ' it "Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc.,'1896, Bd. XDC, p. 208. 

 §§ "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc," Aug. 21, 1897. 



nil "Centralbl. f. Bakt. und Parasitenk.," Sept. 15, 1897, Bd. xxii, Nos. 8 

 and 9. 

 *** "Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc," Oct. 30, 1897. 

 ttt"Amer. Medico-Surg. Bull.," Jan. 25, 1898. 



