Evening star., 1937-12-05
NEWTUBERCUL0S|S.
VACCINE REPORTED
Positive Effect on Humans
Is Claimed by Cornell
Medical Center.
BY HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associated Press Science Editor,

S~~AesSN fSoo otlcuCc 6QlLOIs
NEW YORK, Dec. 4.-The Cornell
Medical Center here today struck at
tuberculosis with news of a new. safe
vaccine. made Of steam cooked tuber-
c-tlosis germs and heated horse serum.
This vaccine, it was announced, has
been tried with favorable evidence
on humans, after two years. experi-
ments on brown Havana rabbits, in
which 1t demonstrated definite protec-
tive powers.
The work was reported in the Jour-.
nal Of Experimental Medicine, Rocke-
feller Institute Publication, by Eugene
L. Opie, M. D., and Jules Freund,
M. D., Of Cornell University Medical
College and New York University.
Breaks Long Time Barrier.
Although the human values have
yet to be learned, the new vaccine drew
medical interest Immediately, because
1t breaks barrier that for years has
held back worldwide scientific hunt
for tuberculosis preventive
This barrier, was the belief, backed
by many experiments, that an effec-
SAfS 'oSSAiC Ooull llOI WlLl
dead tuberculosis bacteria. The liv-
ing germs were considered extremely
dangerous for vaccine. The Cornell
workers broke the dead" germ line
with two new moves
First they killed their germs with
heat-212-degree steam for an hour.
Heat killing, they found, left the germ
bodies somewhat more effective as a
vaccine than previously-tried dead
bacteria.
Second, they found that adding
morse serum raised the vaccine's DO
tency into the useful range. Horse Sc
rum is the watery fluid extracted from
horse blood.
In the history of tuberculosis there
has been but one widely tried human
vaccine. 1t is French preparation,
BEG bacillus calmette guerin). 1t is
made of living, but "attentuated"
tuberculosis germs. Their virulence
is reduced by breeding.
Thousands of children have been
given this French preventive in vari-
GUS parts of Europe. In the United
States BEG has not been favored by
the medical profession. 1t has been
declared not particularly effective and
not very safe.
On the brown rabbits the new Cor
nell vaccine was as effective as the
French BEG, which was given for
purposes Of comparison.
Immunity Is Relative.
Describing the results of the new
vaccine, the Comedians report:
This vaccine prepared with all of
the precautions long practiced in the
preparation of typhoid and other bac-
terial vaccines, eliminates the dangers
necessarily incident to the introduce
ton of living bacteria into the body.
THE immunity that follows injec-
ton Of heat killed tubercle baccili. like
all immunity against tuberculosis, is
relative because it can be overcome by
increasing the number OF injecting
micro organisms, and is perhaps tenn
porary because it is well known that
evidence of immuniZation, notably
skin sensitization, against tuberculosis
tends to diminish or disappear after
one or two years.
Within these limitations It has
seemed probable that immunization of
susceptible persons exposed to tuber-
culosis infection might be sufficient to
influence favorably the course Of tu-
berculosis infection. Persons exposed
to tuberculosis have been given heat
killed tubercle bacilli and it has been
possible to obtain evidence in favor
of this opinion"