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REPORT OF THE RING INSTITUTE, GUINDY
To determine the source of such organisms in lymphs, the urine faeces and.
saliva of calves were cultured in suitable media. Organisms identical with those
described above were noted in all cases. It was, however, noted that their chief
source was the skin of calves. Skin scrapings from calves taken at the time of
vaccination showed the presence of these organisms in a majority of cases.
They are to be considered. as saprophytes and it is contended that the issue of
lymph containing them is therefore not contra-indicated. Experiments to devise
methods to prevent these organisms gaining access to lymph are in progress and
will be published in due course.
(5) Protection against smallpox or vaccinia by anti-vaccinia serum.—At my
suggestion Drs. C. G. Pandit and K. P. Menon have started experiments on these
lines. Buffaloes have been hyper-immunised against vaccinia—finally by
intravenous injection of lymph, and their serum used. Given simultaneously, or
a very short time after the infection of monkeys by vaccination with the virus,
anti-vaccinial serum, in suitable doses inhibited or modified the reaction both of
vaccinia and variola. The possible extension to the prevention and even
treatment of smallpox in man is obvious. A note has been sent for publication in
the
(6) Concentration or anti-vaccinial serum by Dr. C. G. Pandit and Mr. N.
Swaminathan.—Preliminary observations in experimental animals and human
cases of smallpox have shown that for treatment very large doses of anti-
vaccinial serum are required. Concentration is therefore desirable, and so a
comparative study of various methods of concentration has been undertaken.
Two methods have been studied so far
—
(i) Concentration by diluting the serum with acidulated ether water
mixture and redissolving the precipitate obtained in Ringer's solution. This
method was advocated by Fasting for concentrating anti-pneumococcus sera.
(ii) Concentration by saturation of serum by ammonium sulphate.
The technique described by Findlay was followed. The two precipitates
of euglobulin and pseudoglobulin were redissolved separately in Ringer's solution
as before. The albumin fraction was also obtained and dissolved similarly.
The anti-vaccinial titres of all the fractions were studied. Findlay's observation
that the albumin fraction was devoid of any antibody was confirmed. The greater
portion of the antibody was associated—as was also noted by him, with the
Euglobulin fraction, and a part with the pseudoglobulin fraction. The antibody
obtained with the Fasting's technique was more or less equal with that of the
Euglobulin fraction obtained by Findlay's technique. Further experiments are in
progress and the results will be published in due course.
(7) A study of the immunising value of different strains of vaccine lymph
by Dr. C. G. Pandit, Dr. K. P. Menon and Khan Sahib Muhammad Omar Sahib.—
For the adequate control of smallpox, lymph should possess apart from potency,
a maximum immunising value. There is, however, no suitable technique avail--
able to determine this. Vaccine Institutes maintain the potency of the " Seed
lymph " by suitable passages on animals other than the calf. It is not known to
what extent passages really affect its immunising value. That such passages
have to be repeated frequently, shows that lymph always deteriorates in spite of
such passages. On the other hand the view has been advanced by J. R. F.
Rassers that for sometime past lymph has been increasing in potency and he
attributes the incidence of post-vaccinial encephalitis to this factor.
It was thought that an ideal lymph from the point of view of control of
smallpox would be the lymph obtained by direct cultivation of smallpox virus
through monkey and calf passages. On account of the tendency towards
generalization associated with such lymph it cannot be considered safe for
routine use. It can however be used as a " standard " for comparison with
routine calf lymph.
In the experiments now undertaken this is attempted. The two strains—
the routine calf-lymph and the one obtained from variolar lymph as noted above,
are being studied, and quantitative estimations of their power to provoke anti-
-vaccinial and flocculating antibodies and the degree of immunity conferred by
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