The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-27
SCARLET FEVER
 SElRUEI X FOUND
Dr. DOchez of Colurnb.a Univer- sity Describes Discovery
 Which Shows Promise

circles here today expressed keen interest in the announcement that d serum for scarlet fever has been dis covered. The announcement was made by Dr. A. k. Dochez, associate professor of medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia university, and twisting physician at the Presbyterian hospital, at the 136th meeting of the . Society for Experiment Biology and Medicine, Cornell University Medical college.
 In carefully worded phrases. admit , edly designed to prevent the medical and lay world from jumping to conclusions that he had a panacea, Dr. Dochez said there were no grounds yet for stating that the serum is definitive cura tive agent, but in q limited number of cases dealt with at New Haven hospital by Dr. Francis G. Blake. professor of med icine at Yale University School of Medi cine, certain promise" had been shown.
 Dr. Dochez's address was headed Studies Concerning the Significance of Streptococcus Uemolytious." Under this technical title he traced the de- velopments which led him to believe that this micro-organism was responsi- ble for scarlet fever, and how Dr. Blake had apparently successfully used a serum from horses immunized by the streptococcus in question.
 More careful study of the throat secretions of scarlet fever patients has demonstrated the organism to be pres ent at some time during the disease in 100 per cent of instances" Dr.. .Dochez said.
 Efforts Are Successful
 Ever since the institution of these studies we have made more or less continued efforts to produce in animals with scarletinal type of $. hemolyti- GUS, disease resembling scarlet fever. At first those efforts met with ques- 'tionable success. More recently with a special technic we have been more successful and have produced in guinea pigs q condition resembling in its main features certain of the phenomena of scarlet fever.
 ''The animals develop fever, a tenn porary increase in the white corpuscles of the blCNd, lose. weight, and on the second and third days show q transient rash. OIfs eighth to'the twelfth day general "adisquamation appears most conspicuously on the pads of the feet.
 Tn view of the similarity to scarlet fever Of the symptoms complex pro- duced in guinea pigs we decided to i'm munize Il horse by similar proce- dure.
 We have recently obtained from this horse an immune serum. which has been tested for tits capacity to ma terialize the rash locally ill the skin in the human cases of scarlet fever. In all the cases tested so far positive naturalization has recurred. which is somewhat more conspicuous than that obtained under similar circumstances from the use of scarletinal sera from patients in q cOnvalenscent state. We propose in the near future to test the serum independently. It would seem that the disease may mot be unlike diphtheria, in that the principal locali- zation of the Infection gives rise to the general symptsns ands1the Fash. <,
 Skin Cleared Of Rash,
 "Dr. Blab pk .New Haven hospital was asked to conduct further researches with the horse serum. He has re- ported that after a period it was found the serum produced the same effects in scarlet fever patients as serum from recovered cases of the disease That is to say, patches of the skin were cleared from the rash 1 wish to en- phasize again, that, though Dr. Blake reports certain promise in limited number of cases, there are no grounds as yet for stating that serum has been discovered which is detinitive cura- tive agent, do this in order to prevent any misapp- hension. for when such discoveries have been previously an nounced both the medical world and the public have, often unnecessarily, been thrown into q fever heat
 It was learned from an authorita- tive medical source that research work with the scarlet fever serum has been actively conducted at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, Avenue and East SiXty-Sixth street, and in the laboratories of the Presbyterian hospital. Further research work will be carried on both at these two in- stiutions and at New Haven hospital. Those who are interested in the matter hope nt later date to be in position to make q more definite announcement
 It was pointed out that it is but one steli from serum to vaccine, and, therefore. there is every hope that within the near future there would be for scarlet fever not only q curative but preventive agent.
 Recent statistics show that i'll the United States there are about 100000 Cases of scarlet fever annually. In New York the average is about 100 week. Scarlet fever is q spring dis ease. and in the months from Febru- ary to April, statistics show, the cases run sometimes as high as 300 weekly in this city. The average mortality is between 3 and per cent, but the mal- Ady, like many other infectious dis cases, comes in waves of varying in tensity, and there have been periods when the mortality rose to 15 per cent. It attacks chiefly persons from 2 to p years of age. The most dan gerous period, physicians agree, is from 0 to 10 years.