Serum-therapy in the light of the most recent investigations / by Frederick W. Stetson.
- Stetson, Frederick W.
- Date:
- 1902
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Serum-therapy in the light of the most recent investigations / by Frederick W. Stetson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![])lained by the side chain theory of Ehrlich. Ac- cording to this theory the protoplasmic cells produce a substance, side chains, which physiologically may act as a special form of nutriment to the cell. When produced in excess, it becomes detached from the cell and assimilated by the blood. When toxines are intro- duced into the system, they act by fastening upon the side-chains of that sort of cells for which they have a special affinit}', and subvert their normal function. If this involves many or vital elements, sickness or death ensue. In other cases, the affected side chains are cast off and eliminated, and then replaced by a new formation. By such repeated destruction and regen- eration of side chains, an overcompensatory tendency to reproduction is ultimately brought about. The blood then becomes stocked with these superfluous side chains; so that upon a fresh advent of toxine, either in the same body or after the blood has been introduced into another body, this unites so readily with the free side chains, that those of the living pro- toplasm are not attacked, and the disease is prevented. Corroborative of this theory are experiments of Wasserman's. lie assumed that, inasmuch as the tox- ine of tetanus exerted its effect on the brain and spinal cord, the side chains which compose its anti- toxine originated in the cells of those structures. If this were the case, injections of the normal side chains, i. e., of brain and cord tissue, ought to answer the pur- pose of injections of the artificially produced side chains, i. e., of antitoxine. Such in his experiments proved to be the case. Tissues of the cord and brain of man, the guinea-pig, rabbit, pigeon and horse all served as a protection against the toxine when given](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21167606_0025.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
