ANTIPNEUMOCOCCUS RABBIT SERUM AS A THERAPEUTIC AGENT IN LOBAR PNEUMONIA

Abstract

Antipneumococcus serum is at present the only specific therapeutic agent useful in the treatment of lobar pneumonia. The first conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of specific serum in type I pneumococcus pneumonia was brought by studies made in the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute in 1912-1913.¹During the twenty-four years since the publication of this report the value of type I antipneumococcus serum has been conclusively proved by studies in this hospital,²and these results have been confirmed and extended by numerous workers.³ In type II pneumococcus pneumonia the value of antipneumococcus serum is somewhat less definite, but the reports of Bullowa,⁴Cecil and Plummer,⁵Finland and Sutliff⁶and Finland and Dowling⁷indicate that the mortality rate may be reduced by the early administration of adequate amounts of serum. The results of specific serum therapy in type VII and type VIII pneumococcus pneumonias