BACTERIOPHAGE THERAPY

Abstract

The purpose of this report is (<i>a</i>) to present summaries and discussions of (1) the experimentally determined facts relating to the bacteriophage phenomenon, (2) the laboratory and clinical evidence for and against the therapeutic usefulness of bacteriophage and (3) the relation of so-called antivirus to materials containing bacteriophage, and (<i>b</i>) to serve as a basis for a survey of the status of some of the commercial preparations. As it is impossible to include in this article an abstract of the whole voluminous and contradictory literature on these subjects, we have summarized only the papers and reviews that have appeared to us to be the most significant. <h3>MODE OF ACTION AND NATURE OF BACTERIOPHAGE</h3> Transmissible lysis of bacteria was discovered independently by Twort¹in 1915 and by d'Herelle²in 1917. As d'Herelle has stated that he noticed the effect of the lytic agent first in 1909 and as the