The sun., 1916-09-10
PROOF MAN NOT YET A POSSIBILITY OF SCIENCE
Only a Measured Immunity Conferred
Against Certain Diseases Vaccine
Rather Than a Serum Sought as a
Remedy for Infantile PARALYSIS

h Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Research have been the principal and
the limited sourcc Of immuniz!ng
serum. and because of this extremely
restricted supply Dr. t'lexner has very
recently called attention to serum-ther-
apy in man in order that a more gen
erous source of the curative agent
might De made available. 1t IL for his
reason that calls have been sent out
Tor recovered victims to give Of their
blood for the benefit of the hundreds
stricken of late.
A purely physical ANALYSIS OF III.
conditions confronting the treatment
of a youth of sood size will make mat
tiers clearer Ia the layinan. The body
of such II person has i'm the circula-
tory system something like seven
quarts of blood. Into this blood. mt
the utmost. only Il few cubic cent?
meters OF serum are introduced. and
the minimizing bodies SO transmitted
are expected to offset. battle with or
neutralize the probable horde of the
disease germs present. 1t is essentially
a question of proportion.
While IL is well known that anti.
bodies do undoubtedly remain in the
circulation OF a person recovered
from certain Diseases. 1t is equally
true that these residual defender,
pass away in time. hence the reas5n
for reinoculation from time to time in
order to perpctuate. or rather to ron
tinue, immunity. Scrums containing
a~ntibodies produce in the system
where introduced what Is now de-
scribed as passive immunity" That
Is To say. the antibodies placed In the
circulation only reinforce the normal
klldred defence already in the blood;
they do not call out the ultimate
kindred defence which les within
vital cells. This fact indicates the linz
itations of serum-therapy in general
and emphasizes it IN The Ease OF par
ticular maladies. ~infantilc paralysis
being one of the latter.
II must be KEEP; IN mind that in
scrum-therapy reliance is placed upon
Il by-produCt OF the disease germ and
not urJn the actual presence OF the
germ itself-dead or alive. 1t is
enough to know that the germ in its
life history evolves or causes TO evolve
a serum or a~ntitoNin. This under
suitable conditions will neutralIzc or
arrest The ACTIVITIES Of kindred germs.
lfence the origin ~ su-callcd immunity
bodies. Now in the casc Of vaccina-
ton. on the other hand. the disease
germs are purl uSelN introduced into
IN system, ~ dead. t~uriously. this
brings about active immun'zation."
Not only that. but the protecting cf-
feet due to the Introduction Of the
dead bacilli il more enduring. The de-
fun,t .-tni- simulate tho body cells
and cause to Ice left in the blood "A
certain percentage OF sentinel anti
bodies, which call promptly To their
aid hat army OF reserves which the
bitter experience OF n war on dis
ease has brought into more or less
enduring existence.
The germ of i~nfan,ile paralysis is
81 small that it is hardly more than
just visible under the microscope. The
soldiers uf the hody's army of de-
fence arc 20 minute that they cannot
Ice seer at I'LL, and Yet they are capable
Of giving clfcctual battle by utilizing
other resources At their command.
These particular soldiers are called
'opsonins.' They were 40 raned by
Sir Almroth T.. Wright. their liscov-
ercr. because they serve to n. Ike the
white corpuscles of the blood destroy
the invading germs. Strange as II
may seem. the ~opsonin will attack It's
natural foe no matter whether the
cncmv be dead or alive. Therefore.
when dead hacilli. which cannot multi
ply their kind. are introduced by vac
c.nat!on, the opsonins get busy at
once.
True. the |opsonins do the same thing