Infection, immunity and serum therapy : in relation to the infectious diseases of man / by H.T. Ricketts.

  • Ricketts, Howard Taylor, 1871-1910.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Infection, immunity and serum therapy : in relation to the infectious diseases of man / by H.T. Ricketts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    21/812
    INTRO'DUCTION HISTORICAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL. The conception of the nature of immunity Early Times which was current at one period or another of ticesr*****^ history had some relationship to the conception of the etiology of diseases at those times. It will be remembered that at one time diseases were supposed to be imposed by an angry deity, and to avert them various mysticisms were resorted to^ such as the utterance of incantations and the wearing of talismans. On the other hand, a more logical attempt to explain the natural immunit}' of the Psylli against snake poison was made by Pliny, who suggested that it might be due to their habit of drinking water from wells in which pois- onous snakes dwelt. This is not unlike our pres- ent conception of active immunization. Von Behring quotes literature to show that among some primitive races of to-day, artificial immunization is carried on; a Mozambique tribe is said to inoculate against snake poison by rub- bing into a small cutaneous incision a paste which contains venom. Probably non-fatal quantities are introduced in this way, resulting in the forma- tion of venom antitoxin, a method comparable to that used in the production of diphtheria anti- toxin. At a very early period the possibility of habitua- tion to poisonous drugs was recognized. We learn that Mithridates by taking gradually increasing doses of poisons established in himself resistance