Blood clot method of immunization with observations on pneumococcus toxemia.

Abstract

Recent work in scarlet fever and the staphylococcus toxin work of J. T. Parker 1 have obviously suggested renewed inquiry into pneumococcus infections by similar methods. One of us discussed this in a paper of last June. 2 The thought has surely come to many bacteriologists. Moreover, it has been tried many times before; by the Klemperers, 3 by Mosny, 4 by Tizzoni and Panichi, 5 and, particularly, by Wadsworth, 6 who discussed the differences between the antitoxic effects of sera produced with culture filtrates and the antibacterial action of those produced with the whole bacteria. Thomas and Frederick Parker, 7 furthermore, pointed out microscopic necrosis in various organs not associated with the local presence of pneumococcus.

Savchenko's 8 papers of 1905 and the Dick studies show that a bacterial substance, poisonous for man and antigenic, may be relatively harmless for all the ordinary laboratory animals; and from J. T. Parker's work we learn that the toxicity and antigenic effectiveness of some poisons may be limited to individual tissues. We are therefore approaching the problem indirectly by immunizing horses with pneumococcus preparations in the hope that eventually the serum of these horses may display antitoxic potency rather than purely antibacterial effects in clinical test. In the course of this work we have developed a method which we think may be useful not only for our purposes, but for the production of sera in the other diseases mentioned. We are publishing the method now, since we think it sufficiently promising to make general trial desirable. Incidentally, we believe it has furnished us further evidence that a toxic factor develops when pneumococci grow in the body under conditions analogous to those prevailing in pneumonia. Whether or not this toxic factor is antigenic remains to be seen.