2C>6 
Autogenous  Vaccines. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm, 
May,  19U. 
in  the  tissues  of  sufficient  specific  protein-splitting  ferment  to  dis- 
solve invading  bacteria  before  they  have  a  chance  to  develop. 
9.  The  rational  administration  of  bacterial  vaccines  presupposes 
accurate  diagnosis  and  the  administration  of  bacteria  identical  in 
kind  with  those  causing  the  infection.  It  depends,  furthermore, 
upon  the  ability  of  ferments  and  antibodies  to  come  in  contact  with 
the  infecting  bacteria. 
10.  "  Sensitized  vaccines "  are  superior  to  ordinary  vaccines 
because  they  reduce  the  preliminary  period  during  which  the  in- 
jected bacteria  are  being  split  up  so  that  the  non-poisonous  part  may 
be  available  for  the  production  of  specific  antibodies. 
11.  Antibacterial  serums — antistreptococcic  and  antipneumo- 
coccic — depend  for  their  activity  upon  their  content  in  specific  anti- 
bodies or  ferments. 
12.  The  amount  of  these  ferments  in  even  the  best  serums  is 
relatively  small,  and  the  serums  must  therefore  be  used  in  larger 
doses  than  has  been  customary  in  the  past. 
13.  Antimeningococcic  serum  is  both  antibacterial  and  anti- 
toxic. 
14.  Since  the  efficiency  of  curative  serums  is  increased  many 
fold  when  administered  intravenously,  this  route  will  be  used  more 
frequently  than  has  been  the  custom  in  the  past. 
A  CONSIDERATION  OF  AUTOGENOUS  VACCINES. 
By  B.  B.  Vincent  Lyon,  A.B.,  M.D. 
Pathologist  to  Methodist  Episcopal  Hospital;  Assistant  Pathologist  to  German 
Hospital,  Philadelphia. 
Empiricism  is  dying.  Throughout  the  last  century,  and  par- 
ticularly its  latter  decades,  the  searchlight  of  truth  has  lighted  up 
many  of  the  heretofore  dark  places  in  the  study  and  practice  of 
medicine.  The  discovery  of  the  causation  of  many  diseases  through 
bacterial  agencies  was  epoch-making,  and  led  the  way  naturally 
toward  the  introduction  of  measures  able  to  cope  with  such  a  foe. 
During  the  last  thirty  years  scores  of  men  have  been  at  work  on 
this  problem  and  have  each  added  their  little  to  the  sum  of  our 
present  knowledge,  and  from  the  time  of  Jenner  one  startling 
etiologic  and  therapeutic  discovery  has  followed  another,  so  that 
among  the  names  destined  to  live  will  always  be  found  those  of 
