A New Schick-Toxin

[摘要] An historical review of the development of the Schick-test is presented. It is pointed out that since the introduction of the test, the original unstable and inconveniently dispensed preparations have given place to Schick-toxins ready for immediate use. In this paper there is described an improved Schick-toxin which is capable of withstanding heat up to a temperature of 46°C. for 22 hours with a resultant loss of not more than 25 per cent of its potency.Furthermore, the question of the standardization of Schick-toxin has been reviewed and particular attention drawn to the standards recommended by the Permanent Commission on Biological Standardization of the League of Nations. Further investigation of these standards has shown that the toxicity requirement may be advantageously increased.In this paper, results are given of tests carried out on 205 young adults—many of whom were sensitive to diphtheria protein—with two Schick-toxins, one prepared from “fresh” toxin and with twice the requirement for toxicity and somewhat less than the requirement for combining power recommended by the League of Nations Committee and the other prepared from “matured” toxin and conforming to the Requirements of the League of Nations. The Schick-toxin from “fresh” toxin gave 178 interpretable readings out of 205 tests as against 166 interpretable readings out of 205 tests with Schick-toxin from matured toxin.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）