The New York herald., 1922-01-28
No Medicines or Injections
Known as Sure Proven
tives, Says Physician.
BUT VACCINE rs VALUABLE
DR.. Parks Discovery Is Tried
With Good Results Upon
Tolice and Prisoners.

DIR. Royal S. Copeland. Health Com
II issioner. In announcing last night
that the city is experiencing a mild
epidemic of pneumonia rather than in
fluenza. advised the use of new
pneumonia vaccine that has been pre-
pared by DR.. William H. Park, director
of the Bureau Of Laboratories of the
Health Department. This vaccine, the
Commissioner said, has shown favor
sble results.
While it was the first announcement
that such vaccine had been discov-
ereo. DIR. Copeland said that 1t had
been tried on policemen during the in
fuenza recurrence of 1919 and also
had been used In prisons and other in
stitutions. The Commissioner said DR..
Park is exceedingly conservative re-
garding such matters and.merely holds
.tnat it has probable vaiue.
The vaccine was described by Dr..
Copeland as being culture of sputum
taken from pneumonia patient and
used to grow a microscopic plant in
ilood agar. This grows In twenty -four
hours, he said. and the plant then is
seraped off and diluted in salt solu-
t,or. 1t Is heated to kill the germ and
then injected into the body. the vac
cine stimulating the anti-bo.dies and
giving an artificial pneumonialike in
fcction.
No Protective Medicine Known.
People are continually writing and
telephonirg to find out whether there Is
any form of injection or medicine which
they may take TO protect them against
Influenza andyt pneumonia he said.
There is no medicine manufactured
which bas proved a protective against
these two diseases.
mo vaccine has yet been proved to be
of value as preventative OF influenza.
1t is fortunate, however, that the epi-
demic which has been reported to exist
abroad, and from present Indications
here. is really not an epidemic of In
fluenza. but one Of pneumonia. / say It
is fortunate that the prevalent disease 10
pneumonia rather than Influenza because
DIR. Park has prepared a vaccine which
has been found TO be Of considerable
value as a protection against pneumonia.
1t II gratifying for me to be able to in
form the community that we have found
q way OF giving very considerable de-
gree OF protection against pneumonia by
the use OF a vaccine.
THE vaccine treatment Is harmless
and requires three injections at inter-
walls of about four OF five days. This
can be obtained from private physicians.
The Health Department Is bending all It's
IN N nro avvt fon NJ a cuff nj
supply OF such vaccine. While we can
not guarantee that In every case 1t will
protect against pneumonia. we can state
that II does so In a very large number of
cases. and that even IL an attack OF
pneumonia should occur such vaccina-
tion Is very likely to cause 1t to be mild
one. at
arrangements are being made for
distribution to private physicians. For
the benefit OF those who cannot afford
the services OF a private physician 1t
II need be special stations for the ad-
ministration of vaccine to those who
cannot afford TO pay will be established
by the Department Of Health"
Pneumonia Serum Proves Useful.
A serum for the treatment of Iobar
pneumonia was developed at the Rookie
feIler Institute back in 1914 by DIR.
Rufus Cole after three years of expert
mentation. Its efficacy was demon
strated by its use on ninety pneumonia
patients at the time. all of whom were
cured. This serum was understood TO
be composed largely Of the blood OF a
horse.
During the war the United States
Public Health Department conducted
81. xstlkk L.. A.
research laboratories at the foot OF East
Sixteenth street to determine the value
Of vaccine In preventing or curing pneu-
monia. SO far as could be learned last
night the result OF the Federal Health
Departments investigation never has
been made public.
Influenza and pneumonia cases re-
ported to the Health Department yes
terday showed n decrease since Thurs
day. although there was an increase In
the number OF deaths. DR.. Copeland
said the death increase was to he ex-
pectcd. as the records show deaths do
not show decrease until many days
after the number of new cases has de-
clined. There were 2o3 influenza cases
reported. as compared with 366 the day
before. and rs pneumonia cases as COM
pared with 131 Thursday.
The deaths from influenza were five,
while on Thursday there were only
three. and from pneumonia the deaths
totaled So. as compared with 46 the
day before.
The Influenza and pneumonia cases
reported yesterday were divided as fol-
lows:
fluenza. monia.
kanhattan ..................-..fs sa
Brooklyn ..................s... 22 Y