The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine (late Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine) / with notes on serum therapeutics by members of the staff of the Institute.

  • Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine (late Jenner Institute of Preventive Medicine) / with notes on serum therapeutics by members of the staff of the Institute. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    19/42 (page 13)
    these authors contained the germ of the idea of serum therapeutics, neither in the clearness of the expression nor in the completeness of the demonstration did they approach the work of Behring, which, by the experimental proof presented, first impressed the scientific world with the greatness of the conception, and opened a door for further investigations. At the Medical Congress at Buda-Pesth in 1894 Roux read a paper on the treatment of diphtheria by diphtheria antitoxin, which first proved to the medical world that this was the one method of successfully combating the disease. The experimental and clinical data, and the favourable statistics brought forward by Roux, at once put this method in a secure position from the practical standpoint. The Preparation of Antitoxins. For the preparation of antitoxins on a large scale the horse is the animal now almost exclusively used. The horse can be suitably immunised against tetanus, diphtheria, and other diseases, and the sera obtained are capable of attaining to a very high antitoxic value. Precautions taKen in the selection of the horses for the preparation of antitoxin. The horses are selected by a skilled veterinary surgeon. They must be free from all signs and symptoms of disease. Every horse is tested for latent glanders with mallein, and even a suspicion of a reaction is regarded as a sufficient basis for the rejection of the animal. If the animal has satisfactorily passed the test he is received into the establishment, but is isolated and kept under observation c