Bacterial vaccines and their position in therapeutics / [Leonard S. Dudgeon].

  • Dudgeon, Leonard S. (Leonard Stanley), 1876-1938.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bacterial vaccines and their position in therapeutics / [Leonard S. Dudgeon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    improved in conjunction with Leishman and other workers. It is this method which is practised throughout the world at the present day. Although it has been suggested that improvement in hygiene and sanitation are as much responsible for the decrease of typhoid fever as is immunisation, those of us who worked in some of the Eastern war areas during the Great War obtained absolute proof of the remarkable efficiency of T.A.B. inoculation. Every man can be inoculated, but one cannot inoculate the principles of sanitation and hygiene into all races with equal success. The T.A.B. vaccine is made from cultures of B. typhosus and paratyphoid bacilli A. and B., but my mixed vaccine consists of the above-mentioned bacilli with the para- typhoid bacillus C. in addition. The C. bacillus gives rise to paratyphoid fever all over the world, and for that reason I include it in my mixed vaccine. The bacilli are grown on agar for twenty-four hours at 37° C., emulsified in normal saline, and the bacterial suspension is then heated in a water-bath at about 55° C. for one hour. It is essential to employ as low a temperature as possible for the prepara- tion of the vaccine. I always emulsify the bacilli in saline containing 0*1 per cent, formalin, so as to avoid heating the microbes, and have found this method to be efficient. The vaccines are in use for six months, and should be stored in a cool cupboard in the dark. The inoculations should be given subcutaneously, and preferably in the afternoon or evening. The same area of tissue should not be used for subsequent injections, and it is well to avoid an area with prominent veins, as thrombosis may complicate the local tissue reaction. The amount of local and general reaction which occurs at the present day is usually not severe, but considerable local and general reaction may occur. If 10 grains of aspirin are taken with