■CROUPOUS PNEUMONIA IN THE HORSE. 
121 
the secretions from the nose and mouth will show the presence 
of the diplococcus of Fraenkel. 
There is no specific treatment for pneumonia, recent experi¬ 
ments by the brothers Klemperer of Berlin, on the production 
of immunity and for the cure of pneumonia with subcutaneous 
and intra venous injections of large quantities of filtered bouillon 
cultures or the glycerine extract of the germ, has produced 
some remarkable results. Immunity was produced in animals 
lasting for six months which was transmitted to the offspring 
born within this period. Still more interesting are the observa¬ 
tions upon the cure of the experimentally produced disease. 
They found that the serum and fluids of the body of an animal 
which had been rendered immune, had the property not only of 
producing immunity when introduced into the circulation of 
another susceptible animal, but actually of curing the disease 
after infection had been in progress for some time. In infected 
animals with a body temperature of from 40 to 41 degrees C., 
the fever fell to-normal in twenty-four hours after the injection, 
of serum of another animal which possessed immunity. They 
believe that the pneumococcus produces a poisonous albumen, 
(pneumotoxin) which when introduced into the circulation of an 
animal causes elevation of temperature and the subsequent pro¬ 
duction in the body of a substance (antipneumotoxin) which 
possesses the power of neutralizing the poisonous albumen which 
is formed by the bacteria. 
In man they hold that during the pneumonia process there 
is a constant absorption into the circulation of this poisonous 
albumen produced by the bacteria in the lungs. This continues 
until eventually the same antidotal substance is produced in the 
circulation that has been seen to occur experimentally. It is 
then that the crisis occurs. The bacteria is neither destroyed 
nor is their power to produce the poisonous albumin lessened, 
but the third factor, the antitoxic element, now exists and 
neutralizes the toxic substances as they are produced. They 
demonstrate that the serum of the blood of patients aftei the 
crisis of pneumonia contained the antitoxic substance and was 
