History, Modern -- 19th century; Nineteenth century
Now if we could use these antagonizing substances, or, as they are
called, antitoxins, upon other men or animals sick with a similar
disease, would their bodies be at once strengthened to resist and
finally overcome the disease? Yes, in a certain majority of cases they
would, and this is exactly what scientific observers have noted,
worked out, and have successfully applied. A new art in the healing of
disease, which is spoken of broadly as serum-therapy, or medication by
curative or protective serums, has thus been discovered.
The first observers in this new field were Pasteur and Raynaud in
France in 1877–78, and Salmon and Smith in this country in 1886.
Raynaud, by injecting serum from a calf which had had an attack of
cow-pox, prevented the appearance of the disease in a calf freshly
inoculated with the virulent material of the disease. Pasteur, by using
feebly infective germs of fowl cholera, conferred immunity upon healthy
fowls against the disease, and was able to cure those which were ill.
Salmon and Smith injected small and repeated amounts of the elaborated
toxins or poisons of the bacillus of hog cholera into healthy swine,
and were able to confer immunity upon them.
However, it was not until Behring in 1892 announced his discovery of
an antitoxin serum for diphtheria, along with an undisputed proof of
its value in treatment, that the attention of the scientific world
was finally aroused and stimulated to the appreciation of the great
possibilities of serum-therapy.
Strange as it may seem, much opposition arose to this new method of
treatment, not alone from the lay portions of the community, but even
from the ranks of the medical profession itself. This opposition was
due in part to misconceptions of the principles involved in the new
doctrine, and in part to the falsely philanthropic prejudices of the
pseudo-scientific sections of both parties. But by the persevering work
of the enthusiastic believers in serum-therapy, positive conviction has
now replaced misconception and prejudice in the minds of the majority
of its former opponents.
The accumulation of statistical evidence, even where all allowance is
made for doubtful methods of compilation, shows that the aggregate
mortality of diphtheria has been reduced fully fifty per cent. since
the introduction of antitoxic treatment by Behring in 1892.
Since the method of preparation of the commercial diphtheria antitoxin
illustrates the general principles involved in the search for the
production of curative or protective serums for infectious diseases in
general, a summary of the steps in its manufacture will now be given.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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