Second Paper: Action of Immune Sera on Pneumococcus Infection.* by Augustus B. Wadsworth, M.d

In my first paper on " ' Studies on Pneumococcus Infection in Animals , I summarized in the introduction the significant results of previous work and then recorded my experimental studies on the action of the pneumococcus on animal tissues and of immune sera on the pneumococcus. The present paper deals with .the action of immune sera on pneumococcus infection and with the mechanism of recovery in animals. The earliest observers, Foa and Carbone, Emmerich and Fowitsky, Kruse and Pansini, G. and F. Klemperer, and many others mentioned in the introductory summary of the first paper, record experiments showing the effect of immune serum on pneumococcus infections of animals and human beings. G. and F. Klemperer ( I ) treated in.ocul~ted mice with immune serum which they obtained from animals immunized with cutture precipitates. In these experiments and in a limited study of the treatment of pneumonia in human beings they found this serum effective and considered its action anti,toxic. Although these results were considered favorable by the Klemperers, they have recorded no other experiments. Similarly, on the basis of favorable effects in studies on animals several observers, notably Pane (2) , RSmer (3) , and Neufeld (4) , have since urged the use of immune sera in pneumococcus infection of man. But in the hands of others, these sera have failed to yield convincing results. Thus, previous attempts to secure an efficient serum for the treatment of pneumonia in man