THE USE OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS TOXOID IN THE TREATMENT OF CHRONIC OSTEOMYELITIS

On the wings of the now classic tragedy of Bundaberg, Australia,1came a new method of approach in the therapy of staphylococcic infections. The immediate subsequent investigations by Burnet and his associates,2and those of Dolman,3Panton, Valentine and Dix,4Parish and Clark5and others have enriched our knowledge of the immunology of staphylococcic infections with special reference to their toxins, toxoids and antitoxins. These workers demonstrated that active immunization can be induced by the administration of staphylococcus toxin. They furthermore developed staphylococcus toxoid, which is staphylococcus toxin detoxified with formaldehyde, capable of bringing about similar responses in the living animal without the limitations and dangers incidental to the use of toxin. This induced active immunity has in some instances been sufficient to enable rabbits to withstand injections of definitely lethal doses of living toxigenic staphylococci or staphylococcus toxin. Dolman6carried this work further