Abstract
It was recently shown by Perlzweig and Steffen 1 that the immunizing antigen of the pneumococcus may be extracted from the bacterial cells by 70 per cent alcohol, physiological salt solution and by water. They found that the supernatant fluid of old pneumococcus saline vaccines when filtered through a Berkfeld candle conferred active immunity upon mice after several subcutaneous injections. Such filtrates also produced type-specific precipitates with homologous immune sera. The agglutinin production was not studied.
In view of these findings experiments were begun on the antigenic properties of the supernatant fluids of other vaccines. In a preliminary way the following was performed with typhoid vaccine:
The contents of a number of 0.5 and 1 cc. vials of a commercial triple typhoid (T. A. B.) saline vaccine, date of expiration February 13, 1923, bacterial content 1,000 million typhoid and 750 million of each paratyphoid A and B, were thoroughly mixed by shaking, a total volume of 30 cc. being collected. 15 cc. of this mixture were removed and are designated below as “whole vaccine”. The remaining 15 cc. were centrifugalized at high speed until the supernatant fluid was clear. This fluid was carefully decanted and filtered through a Berkfeld (N) candle. Two rabbits were then injected intravenously with the whole vaccine and two with the filtrate, and the agglutinin and precipitin titres of the rabbit sera determined.
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