A STUDY OF THE THERAPEUTIC MECHANISM OF ANTI-PNEUMOCOCCIC SERUM ON THE EXPERIMENTAL DERMAL PNEUMOCOCCUS INFECTION IN RABBITS : III. THE INFLUENCE OF NON-SPECIFIC FACTORS

The purpose of the present investigation was to determine whether or not non-specific agents were capable of exerting any influence on the response of pneumococcus-infected animals to specific serum therapy. It has been demonstrated in these experiments that whereas gold (empirically chosen) by itself had very little effect either on the course or the outcome of the experimental pneumococcus infection, it is nevertheless capable of exerting a definite and marked beneficial effect in rabbits treated with a subeffective dose of the specific antiserum. Of the rabbits treated with the subeffective dose of serum alone, 71 per cent died and only 29 per cent survived; the additional administration of gold reversed this death-survival ratio with the result that of a large group of rabbits which received the combined therapy, 77 per cent survived and only 23 per cent died.