The Portland daily press., 1895-01-05
THE ANTI-TOXIC SERUM.
First Bottle of Diphtheria Remedy Ar
riyes in Portland.

State Board of Health is to Send DR., Smith
to Washington to Investigate and Re-
port-The Wonderful Remedy Which
Probably Will Be in Use Here Soon.
The first bottle of the new diphtheria
cure, anti-toxine, arrived in this city from
New York. Friday, having been sent to
Messrs. Schlotterbeck & Foss. This bottle
was shown TO representative of the
PRESS Friday evening. The bottle con-
tanned twenty-five cubic centimeters of the
serum. or nbout one ounce. This is sufficient
for an ordinary case of diphtheria. BY
keeping it in dry and cool place this fluid
will retain its potency for several weeks.
The bottle came from the New York Biologi-
cal and Vaccine institute, and is the first
to get so far east.
The physicians of this city who knew of
its arrival showed considerable interest;
but it is not known that any arrangements
been made yet to test it. Already however.
arrangements had been made for DIR.
Charles D. Smith of the State Board of
Health, to go to Washington and there
Investigate fully the process of using The
serum for the benefit of the profession and
people of Maine.
II is not at all likely that it will be long
before the new remedy will be used quite
freely by Portland physicians.
While the attitude of the medical profess
sion is yet one of anxious expectancy rath-
en- than gertrude in regard to this remedy,
some very favorable reports come. 1t is said
that in the diphtheria hospital in Paris the
death rate has been reduced from sixty to
twelve per cent.
Although the nature of the new remedy,
which has been discovered by the German
chemists in Koch's labratory, has been de-
scribed often, the following very succinct
statement by DIR. Henry S. Williams, in
Harper's Weelky,may not be without inter
est.
1.-The new treatment of diphtheria is a
practical application of the latest advances
of experimental bacteriology. The gene
raj facts upon which it is based are briefly
these: Certain bacteria, when developing
in the organism of an animal or man. pro-
duce an alburninoid poison called toxine,
which circulating in the blood, causes d.
sease. For example. the Klebs- Loefier ba-
cillas, growing in the throat of child gene
| rates toxine that produces the system in
condition called diphtheria.
ssIf some of these bacteria be removed
from the organism and placed in artificial
media. such as broth. under proper condit-
ions they will grow and multiply and pro-
duce the same toxine as before. This toxlne
may now be separated from the bacteria by
filtration, and if introduced into an orga-
nism by incubation it will produce the
disease as readily as if it had been formed
in the organism. But the viTulence of the
disease thus produced will vary with the
quantity of the toxfne injected. Moreover,
if the first dose given is SO small as to pro
duee only slight illness. blarger quantity
may be introucedoa flew days later without
producing corresponding effect: and pro-
gressively larger doses may be administered
from time to time, until at last the animal
receives with impunity doses many times
larger than could possibly be borne at first.
I'm the case of the diphtheria toxine, fol
example obtained. as has been said, by
growing the diphtheria bacillus in meat
BROTH, if fifteen drops of the dltre contain
ing the toxine be injected into vein Of a
horse the animal will be severely poisoned.
But by repeating the injection from time TO
time in progressing doses, at the ED OF
three or four months the animal will bear
dose of two hundred times the original
quantity. In other words, the animal has
| become immune to the disease.
ssIf now a vein of the immune animal be
opered and soma bloodLS withdrawn, the
| serum of that blo9d ssspt4her constituents
being removed) may bsdDjected into the
| system of another a}hii,apaaf or human being
without i'll effect, and the animal or huIna n
| being thus inocnIated becomes immune to
| tho disease. in virtue of the incubation;
| More than that. If the organism inoculated
/ had alraadV acQuired the dISeaSe,-tl moe
| ulation, within reasonable limits, is cura-
| tive. For example. If child has been. ex-
| posed TO diphtherla, incubation with the
| serum of a horse reLde1ed immune TO diph-
| iberia as above described will prevent de-
| velopment of the disease. At g later stage
| incubation tends to cure the disease"