BACTERIOPHAGE THERAPY FOR PYODERMIA

Abstract

This paper is presented primarily for the purpose of bringing to the attention of physicians the fact that the use of bacteriophage is meeting undeniable success. This subject is too little known among physicians, although numerous papers concerning it have been published within the past ten years. The story of the discovery of bacteriophage by d'Herelle1in 1916 follows. In August, 1916, an adult suffering from a severe form of Shiga dysentery came to the hospital of the Pasteur Institute. During the course of the patient's illness, d'Herelle made bouillon cultures of the stools daily. These cultures were incubated overnight and filtered through a Chamberland filter. A few drops of the filtrate were then added to a young bouillon culture of dysentery bacilli, and the mixture was placed in the incubator. Throughout the course of the disease, the tubes so prepared yielded normal cultures of dysentery bacilli. One