Immunity, protective inoculations in infectious diseases and serum-therapy.

  • Sternberg, George Miller, 1838-1915.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Immunity, protective inoculations in infectious diseases and serum-therapy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    A very remarkable instance of race immunity is that of Algerian sheep against anthrax, a disease which is very fatal to other sheep. In the instances mentioned race immunity is probably an acquired tolerance due to natural selection and inher- itance. If, for example, a susceptible population is ex- posed to the ravages of small-pox, the least susceptible individuals will survive, and may be the parents of chil- dren who will be likely to inherit the special characters as regards structure or physiological activity of organs or tissue elements upon which this comparative immu- nity depends. The tendency of continuous or repeated exposure to the same pathogenic agent will evidently be to establish a race tolerance ; and there is reason to be- lieve that such has been the effect in the case of some of the infectious diseases of man—e.g., syphilis, small-pox— which have been noticed to prevail with especial severity when first introduced among a virgin population, as in the islands of the Pacific, etc. In the same way we may explain the immunity which carnivorous animals have for anthrax and various forms of septicaemia to which the herbivora are very suscepti- ble when the pathogenic germ is introduced into their bodies by inoculation. From time immemorial the car- nivora have been in the habit of fighting over the dead bodies of herbivorous animals, some of which may have fallen a prey to these infectious germ diseases, and in their fighting they receive wounds, inoculated with the infectious material from these bodies, which would be fatal to a susceptible animal. If at any time in the past a similar susceptibility existed among the carnivora, with individual differences as to resisting power, it is evident that there would be a constant tendency for the most sus-