BACTERIOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL* 
Protection. 
Testing. 
Power of 
Antitoxins. 
exhibit any symptoms of the disease, the poison 
of which has been used for the injections. Then 
he is said to be immune or protected from that 
particular disease. Some of the blood of this im¬ 
munized animal is then procured and allowed to 
coagulate and the serum or fluid part is injected 
into other animals or into members of the human 
family, in the same way in which it was used in 
the first instance, until they too become immune 
from that specific disease for a longer or shorter 
period. 
Before using the blood serum of an immunized 
animal on the human subject it is tested on an¬ 
other of the lower animals for the purpose of 
ascertaining its protecting power. If it stands 
the test it is put up in small tubes and tightly 
sealed until required for use. Diphtheria, tuber¬ 
culosis, tetanus, septicemia and other diseases are 
treated by antitoxin inoculations. Antitoxins are 
said to have the power to render inert bacteria 
that may already be present in the subject treat¬ 
ed, or to bring about such alterations in the 
tissues of the body as will prevent their develop¬ 
ment and a cure is the result. 
There are four steps necessary in the prepar¬ 
ation of antitoxins: 
I. —The germs are obtained and grown in a 
proper substance under suitable conditions until 
the toxin or poison is produced. 
II. —The poison is introduced in gradually in¬ 
creased doses until protection is obtained. (A 
dose, we are taught, can be borne toward the last 
of the treatment which if given at first would 
have caused instant death.) Some authorities 
tell us the process takes from three to sir months. 
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