Active immunisation against diphtheria : to the editor of the Lancet / [R.A. O'Brien].

  • O'Brien, Richard Alfred, 1878-1970.
Date:
1925?]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Active immunisation against diphtheria : to the editor of the Lancet / [R.A. O'Brien]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    o l/i$> Re/printed from The Lancet, Jan. 10th, 1925, p. 102 ACTIVE IMMUNISATION AGAINST DIPHTHERIA. To the Editor of The Lancet. Sir,—You have done much during the past few years to help those interested in the public health aspects of the Schick test and active immunisation against diphtheria. They will owe you a further debt for the information given by your Vienna correspondent in your issue of Nov. 22nd, 1924, relating to the recent accident in that city, for it is only by obtaining full information such as your correspondent tried to get, that those who are using these methods can feel full confidence in their work. The Vienna accident is the second reported within the past few years. In connexion with the first, in January of last year, Kelley (1924) reported that toxic symptoms occurred after the injection of toxin anti¬ toxin mixture into a number of children at Concord and Bridgewater, Mass. A careful inquiry was made and it was found that some bottles of a batch of prophylactic mixture had been exposed to a very low temperature. After thawing, the contents of these bottles proved to be very toxic, whereas the toxin - antitoxin mixtures which had not been frozen were non-toxic. The effect of intense cold upon toxin antitoxin mixtures was investigated experimentally bv a number of American workers ; some found that freezing increased toxicity, others did not. Mr. Glenny and Mr. Pope have investigated the problem at these laboratories and are preparing a paper for publication from which they have kindly allowed me to quote. They found that the toxicity of the mixtures they worked with did not increase after freezing. It occurred to them that the local concentration of the phenol or other antiseptic present, which takes place during freezing and thawing, would vary with the composi¬ tion of the mixture and the exact physical conditions during the freezing and thawing, and that certain concentrations of phenol might be more destructive to the antitoxin present than to the toxin. They therefore tried the effect of various concentrations of phenol first upon antitoxin and toxin separately and finally on mixtures of toxin and antitoxin. They found that, if they made the phenol concentration 5 per cent, in a solution of antitoxin containing three