Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-01-08
SERUM CURING MENINGITIS
FLExNER METHOD SUCCEEDING
IN FIRST WASHINGTON CASE.
Patient Girl, First Treated by New
System November 2S-Disease
Organism Disappears.

| Much interest in taken in the progress
meningitis now being treated at the Ca
field Hospital by the use of the new
serum which was recently discovered by
DR.. Simon Flexner, head of the Rookie
Teller Institute for Medical Research, in
New York.
The patient is Miss Matte Schneider. a
white girl. seventeen years old, who was
taken to the hospital November % last.
Since then the Flexner serum method
! has been used with such success that
the patient seems we'll on the road of re-
covery. If her life is saved it will he
the first case out of the sixty-seven that
have been positively diagnosed bacteri-
ologically in Washington in recent years
in which there has been recovery.
The mortality is high in cerebro-spinal
meningitis or spotted fever" DR.. Osler
placing it at 50 per cent. DIR. Simon
Flexner has a record of forty-seyen
cases treated where there have been posi-
tive diagnoses. in which thirty-four of the
cases recovered. and the other thirteen
died. making the mortality percentage
IneSe cases new
serum was used
The record of the case of Miss Schnei-
| der is interesting She had gone to a
theater November 20 and then felt per-
1ectiy well. She was apparently all right
When she returned to her home in West
washington that evening, but during the
night she awOke with a terrific headache
this being one of the SYMPTOMS An
other symptom is the suddenness with
winch the disease seizes the patient. The
neadache continued with a fever and
november p Miss Schneider was seen
usuai prescriptions, but the patient in.
stead OF improving became worse.
Request for Serum.
AT > o'clock in the morning. of No
Vember "a the physician was sum-
moned and found the patient dellrious
November % the patient was noisy and
greatly disturbed. She complained con-
stantly of her poor head;' her head
ana ana neck became retracted, and it was
then that the decision was reached To
remove the patient to Garfield Hospital
and TO use the Flexner serum.
The attending physician telegra phed
70 Or Flexner for some of the serum
November 26 the physicians made a
lumbar puncture upon the patient nv
drawing out fluid from her spinal col
umn at the hospital. This fiUid was
pacterlologically examined and the or
sanism OF cerebro- spinal meningitis
was found in 1t. This organism is
known as diplococcus intracellularis
The fluid when placed in a culture tube
and tried with a thermostat developed
the following day, many other organ
lSmS of the same character that were
well defined. November 81 Dr. Flexner
sent to the Washington physicians
sixty centigrams of the serum
me serum was injected into the
spinal canal after some of the spinal
fluid had been Withdrawn by lumbar
puncture. The dose at single in
lection was from fifteen to thirty CEN
tlgrams. The serum has to be injected
very slowly and carefully to avoid
symptoms of pressure.
Recovery Expected.
Through the use of the Flexner serum
extremely satisfactory results have fol-
lowed in the case of Miss Schneider at
Garfield Hospital In the beginning she
was In stupor, with her head retracted,
temperature ranging from 103 to 1O4 and
rightly of the back and limbs The in
lection of the Flexner serum showed its
effect in reduction of the patients tenn
perature and pulse, and-the fluid that
was drawn from the spine by the lumbar
puncture made the following day showed
no signs of the diplococcus organism, al
though after that there were some evil
oences or the bacillus. injections of the
serum were repeated every two or three
days. and following these the mind of the
patient began to clear. the headac hes
diminished and Miss Schneider began to
ask for nourishment, which she could re-
tain. Finally, in the last few lumbar
punctures that have been made by dag
nostic methods no trace of the diplococcus
bacillus was found, the archaeological in
dication being that the system has been
freed of the organisms which caused the
disease. The patient is now doing we'll,
with splendid indications for recovery.