Serums, vaccines and toxines in treatment and diagnosis / by Wm. Cecil Bosanquet ... and John W.H. Eyre.

  • Bosanquet, W. Cecil (William Cecil), 1866-1941.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Serums, vaccines and toxines in treatment and diagnosis / by Wm. Cecil Bosanquet ... and John W.H. Eyre. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

    7/378 (page v)
    PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Just five years have elapsed since the first edition of this little book was published, and meanwhile the progress of in- vestigation in the field of immunity has been continuous. A complete revision of the text was therefore necessitated, and considerable additions have been made. Perhaps the most notable advance has been in our experience of treat- ment by so-called vaccines—a somewhat unfortunate term in that the dead cultures of microorganisms which are used have nothing to do with cows, nor is the procedure directly analogous to vaccination, which is performed with a living virus. The term, however, seems too firmly estab- lished to be altered now. Progress in this field has been very largely due to the stimulating work of Sir Almroth Wright and his assistants, to whom is also due the inven- tion of a method of control of such treatment by observa- tions of the opsonic or phagocytic index, the value of which has still to be determined. Closely connected with these procedures is the increased attention recently paid to tuber- culin as a remedy for tubercular disease of all kinds, a more suitable scale of doses having been devised and the dangers inherent in the old scheme of treatment thus practically banished. The application of vaccines to acute as opposed to chronic diseases is still in its infancy, but sufficient evidence already exists to awaken hopes of a useful extension of the procedure to this field. It is unfortunate that so far it has not been found possible to apply any form of vaccination