Volume 2

Public hygiene / by Thos. S. Blair[and others].

  • Blair, Thomas Stewart, 1867-
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Public hygiene / by Thos. S. Blair[and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Chapter XVI IMMUNITY* Introductory remarks upon natural and acquired immunity and disease an- tagonisms — Vaccination against variola — Other vaccines — Diphtheria antitoxin Other sera — The procuring of such remedies for the poor — Their use in private and institution practice — Hydrophobia. THE most primitive races commenced the study of immunity and then it was long forgotten, to be again taken up in the nineteenth century. From the commencement of the eleventh century the Chinese and the Siamese inoculated variolus virus into the healthy human subject usually by inserting the same into the nostrils. The venom of the lance-headed viper has long been used (in attenuated form) to antagonize septic states. The oriental nations have employed various substances of an organic nature to produce immunity to various diseases and some of them not without a show of reason. The homoeopathic nosodes have been long used upon the same basis, but are now little employed by that school. The Portugese Colonel Serpa Pinto has given a graphic account of the methods of the Vatuas, on the east coast of Africa, in inducing an asserted immunity against serpent bites. As long ago as 1773 vaccination of cattle against pleuro-pneumonia was practiced in Europe, copied, no doubt, from the Moors and Pouls of Senegambia. Various forms of inoculation have been suggested and some- times practiced during the frightful epidemics that have scourged the world. So, then, the question of immunity is not a new one nor is it one this age will completely settle. Natural immunity is promoted by the many defenses of the body and sometimes by inflammatory processes. Leucocytosis, chemotaxis, phago- cytosis, and the plasma and blood serum bactericidal powers all unite in pro- ducing a certain natural immunity. An acquired immunity may be due to a previous attack of the disease. Mild epidemics confer an immunity. Many diseases pursue a very mild course when inoculated upon the skin of a healthy person. This is true of plague, smallpox, cholera, and a few other diseases. Wright's study of the opsonins and that made of immune ag- glutinins and precipitins, as well as specific antibodies, are all tending to enlarge the field of natural and induced immunity. The studies of Besredka . * Edited from literature supplied by the health boards and expressive of their point of view, but compared with the texts of laboratory workers. Literature consulted — Infection, Immunity, and Serum Therapy, Ricketts— Sajous on the Internal Secretions— The literature of several State Boards of Health — Hygienic Laboratory Bulletin No. 36 — The Question of Immunity, a paper by L. H. Warner A.M., Ph.G., M.D.— Materia Medica and Therapeu- tics, by Blair — Several journal articles.