Abstract
In a recent paper Tunnicliff 1 has noted the close immunological relationship between the cocci isolated by her from patients with measles and those isolated by other workers, as evidenced by the phagocytic index. In the study she used 2 strains isolated in this laboratory by Duval and Hibbard 2 from the blood stream of human cases of measles during the height of the eruption; the blood in each case was filtered through a Berkfeld N filter before special media was inoculated, a coccus being obtained from every case cultured.
Similar evidence of this immunological relationship has likewise been demonstrated in this laboratory, based upon agglutination reactions. Three rabbits were immunized by 12 intravenous injections over a period of 70 days—one with a coccus sent us by Tunnicliff, another with a measles coccus isolated by Duval and Hibbard, and a third with a stock strain of Streptococcus viridans. The first 4 injections were killed cultures, the last 8 were living cultures.
As shown by the accompanying tables, the sera of the rabbits immunized against the measles cocci each agglutinated almost equally and to high dilutions both strains of the measles coccus, while the Streptococcus viridans was only slightly agglutinated by these sera. On the other hand, the serum of the rabbit immunized against the Streptococcus viridans very markedly agglutinated the homologous organism, whereas the measles cocci were practically not affected.
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