548 



Upon the Properties of an Antityphoid Serum obtained from the 



Goat. 



By Allan Macfadyen, M.D. 



(Communicated by Dr. C. J. Martin, F.R.S. Received March 2, — Read 



March 8, 1906.) 



(From the Bacteriological Department, Lister Institute.) 



In this communication I propose to give a brief account of the results 

 obtained by the immunisation of the goat with the cell juices of the Bacillus 

 typhosus, in continuation of researches already published which had for their 

 main object the production of an antibody for the endotoxin of the typhoid 

 organism.* These experiments met with partial success and failure. It 

 will be sufficient on the present occasion to say that the goat proved a more 

 suitable animal than the horse for arriving at a solution of the theoretical 

 and practical considerations involved. The object was to arrive at the best 

 method of producing with the material employed an antiendotoxin in 

 adequate amount, with a view to its reapplication to the horse. 



During the progress of these researches experiments on analogous lines 

 have been published by Dr. Besredka.f and to these I will, in the first 

 instance, refer. Dr. Besredka describes the results following the intra- 

 venous injection into a horse of the intact dead and living typhoid bacilli. 

 The injections of the bacilli were carried out for a period of two years. The 

 serum was tested for antiendotoxic properties against (1) killed and dried 

 cultures of the B. typhosus, of which - 01 gramme killed guinea pigs on 

 intraperitoneal injection; (2) a soluble endotoxin extracted from the dead 

 and dried bacilli, of which 1/8 e.c. killed guinea pigs. The results were as 

 follows : 10 or 15 centigrammes of the dried serum (about 1 c.e. and 1*5 c.c. 

 before drying) neutralised 10 or 15 lethal doses of the killed typhoid 

 culture respectively on intraperitoneal injection into the guinea pig, and the 

 10 centigrammes of the dried serum neutralised 16 lethal doses of the soluble 



* " Upon the Immunising Effects of the Intracellular Contents of the Typhoid Bacillus, 

 as obtained by the Disintegration of the Organism at the Temperature of Liquid Air," by 

 Allan Macfadyen, ' Boy. Soc. Froc.,' March 12. 1903 ; " Upon the Intracellular Consti- 

 tuents of the Typhoid Bacillus," by Allan Macfadyen and Sydney Bowland, ' Centralblatt 

 fur Bakteriologie,' Abth. 1, vol. 30, 1901, No. 20 ; and vol. 34, 1903, Nos. 7 and 8. 



t " Etudes sur le bacille typhique et le bacille de Peste," par Dr. Besredka, 1 Annales de 

 FInstitut Pasteur,' July 25, 1905 : " De l'Antiendotoxine Typhique," par Dr. Besredka, 

 Ibid., February, 1906 



