BACTERIOPHAGE THERAPY

The early hopes of bacteriophage therapy have hardly been realized. In spite of much experimentation, which has shown why bacteriophage could not function therapeutically, at least as a specific agent pitted against a specific infection, clinical observations have been accumulating which indicate that intravenous injection of bacteriophage may have beneficial effects. The material labeled "bacteriophage" which the clinician injects into a patient with severe septicemia is obtained by first growing the particular bacterium on a broth medium and then introducing bacteriophage into the turbid culture. After further incubation the material becomes entirely clear, showing that the bacteria have been dissolved and killed by the bacteriophage, the concentration of which has increased sufficiently to cause bacterial disintegration. Obviously, such a bacteriophage solution is not a simple solution or suspension of bacteriophage. It contains peptone, which was present in the original broth culture; and peptone, as is well known, will itself cause