Abstract
Serum therapy in infectious diseases has earned a justly prominent place. Passive immunization in diphtheria and tetanus is an established fact. Excellent results have been obtained with this form of immunization in epidemic meningitis, although the Diplococcus intracellularis-meningitidis elaborates no ectotoxin. Less certain immunization therapy, in the nature of bactericidal, bacteriolytic or agglutinative serums, has been accomplished in streptococcic bacteremia, Asiatic cholera, bacillary dysentery, pneumonia and other infectious diseases. In gonorrheal complications, such as rheumatism, beneficial results have been obtained with antigonococcic serum, and the assumption is that with the administration of the serum there has been the introduction of specific antibodies. Serum therapy is not limited in its field of usefulness to specific immunity. Diphtheria antitoxin has been employed successfully by Noel Paton 1 in various septic conditions. He further found the same good results when employing normal horse serum in tuberculosis, arthritis deformans and cerebrospinal meningitis. Normal human
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