Abstract
Summary and Conclusions
The effects of intravenously administered typhoid vaccine upon the leukocyte population and the temperature of the rabbit were studied.
The response of the temperature and of the leukocyte count was dependent upon the amount of typhoid vaccine given. Small amounts of the vaccine caused little or no fever, a heterophile leukocytosis, and a mononuclear leukopenia. When larger doses of vaccine were given, the rabbits responded with high fever, an initial heterophile leukopenia followed by a secondary leukocytosis, and a sustained mononuclear leukopenia. Ten times the number of organisms were required in saline suspensions to produce a thermogenic and leukocytic response comparable to that produced when the vaccine was given in homologous plasma. The plasma-typhoid and saline-typhoid reaction differed only in degree except for the earlier onset of fever when the organisms were given in plasma. These experiments on rabbits with typhoid vaccine indicate that when leukocyte changes are used as a test for pyrogens, it is necessary to employ a series of total and differential counts on each animal.
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