On the Preparation and Use of Antirabic Serum, and on the Rabicidal Properties of the Serum of Patients After Undergoing Antirabic Treatment; Also a Note on the Blood of a Patient Suffering From HYDROPHOBIA.1

Studies in Anti-rabies Immunisation

“…Shortly afterwards Babes (1891) demonstrated that the serum of an immunised animal had the power to inactivate rabies virus in vitro, and this observation has since been confirmed by Kraus, Kellner and Clairmont (1902), Marie (1904), Remlinger (1905), Schnuirer (1905, Semple (1908), Stuart and Krikorian (1925) and Pereira da Silva (1926). That a similar rabicidal property is possessed by the serum of immunised human beings has been shown by Kraus and Kreissl (1902), Semple (1908), Kostrezewski (1920), Nikolajewa (1925 and Pereira da Silva (1926). The results obtained, however, have also gone to prove that, while rabicidal antibodies probably do occur in the blood of all immunised mammals, it is ordinarily in a concentration insufficient to confer passive immunity or to exert definite therapeutic effect.…”

“…At the same time it is obvious that if a killed virus is to be used with success in anti-rabies vaccination, the mode of killing the causal agent must, as in the preparation of a bacterial vaccine, be such as will produce as little alteration as possible in antigenic value and so ensure a high degree of immunising power. Semple (1908), consequently, first modified Fermi's process by using a killed carbolised vaccine in treatment; this vaccine was prepared from an 8 per cent. emulsion of fixed virus brain with an addition of 1 per cent.…”

“…If the rabicidal action of the sera of animals treated with anti-rabies vaccines is, indeed, as suggested by Semple (1911), one of the factors which indicate immunity, a second means of determining the efficacy of carbolised virus would appear to be readily available. The true value of such treatment would then be estimated by an accurate comparison being made of the rabicidal power possessed by the sera of animals immunised by carbolised vaccine with that possessed by the "standard" immune sera attained by treatment with fresh fixed virus in physiological saline solution.…”