Serum therapy : bacterial therapeutics and vaccines / by R. T. Hewlett.

Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Serum therapy : bacterial therapeutics and vaccines / by R. T. Hewlett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    animals to intestinal cholera as being largely due to the microbial flora of the intestine antago- nising the action of the cholera microbes. On Ehrlich’s ‘side-chain’ theory, to be discussed immediately, it may well be that the atomic groups which unite with the toxin molecule and so give rise to the toxic action are absent, and the cells are, therefore, immune. It is, however, acquired immunity, and especially its artificial production, that is of chief interest. Acquired immunity is frequently pro- duced as a result of an attack of disease ; it may be extremely marked and lasting, as in the case of small-pox, yellow fever, and scarlet fever, or is transient and ill-defined, as in diphtheria, erysipelas, and pneumonia. That a transient immunity is produced in the last- named diseases seems certain, for it is difficult to conceive that the disease processes would otherwise come to an end. There are also many artificial methods of producing an acquired immunity, the chief of which are the following. 1. By treatment with a modified and atte- nuated or less virulent form of the infective agent. This is the Pasteur system of vaccina- tion, and is applied in anthrax and other dis- eases. The anthrax vaccine is prepared by