Pneumonia Cure?

To a public wet and shivering, cold and snuffling, waiting for a reluctant Spring, came the news that a "new pneumonia serum" had been discovered by one Dr. Lloyd B. Felton, of the Harvard Medical School.

Horses. The "horse serum," in use heretofore, had been regarded by many as worse than the disease it was meant to cure. It is made by injecting pneumonia germs (called pneumococci) into the blood of a horse. The horse then develops in his blood a substance which aids in destroying or digesting these germs. This substance--the so-called "antibody"--is known to be carried in the serum, or "clear liquid" of the blood. The remedial method in using the "horse serum" was to inject a large quantity of highly diluted serum into the human patient. This serum generally brought along with it chills, fever and the so-called "serum sickness." It usually caused violent reactions; many physicians discarded it as the greater of two evils.

A new powder. Dr. Felton since the general influenza epidemic of 1918-19 has been working with a commission organized by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in an attempt to find a remedy for influenza. Although he has not conquered influenza, he has found a serum for the most dreaded concomitant of that disease--the pneumonia which often put a fatal termination to a case of influenza.

In his research work Dr. Felton took the unpurified serum as it was drawn from the blood of a horse. He filtered it, treated it electrically and chemically, tried always to extract rom it a pure solution of antibodies, ree from the injurious by-products that hitherto had rendered the horse serum nearly valueless. Eventually Dr. Felton found that when one part of the horse serum was mixed with ten parts water a white, fluffy precipitate appeared. He collected this precipitate, purified it, found that it dried into a white crystalline powder which he suspected contained the antibodies in highly concentrated form. Mice. Dr. Felton experimented with the newly, found powder. Two groups of mice were given pneumonia by injection. Group A was then injected with the white powder. These recovered. Every member of Group B died. A more rigorous test was then made on one mouse. Into his body were injected enough germs "to kill a million mice." He was given the white powder--and quickly recovered. These experiments on mice continued until Dr. Felton was positive he had found a remedy for pneumonia. At least he was certain the new substance was in no way harmful. He then determined the exact potency of the new serum, distributed small quantities of it among hospitals in Boston, New York, Brooklyn. Humans. Thereupon the substance was injected into the veins of 120 persons, suffering from pneumonia. In not one case was there any unfavorable reaction. On the basis of these tests it was predicted that 25% to 50% of the cases of pneumonia can be cured. Injection is always made in the veins; subcutaneous injection has not proved effective.

Significance. As pneumonia causes an average of 90,000 deaths a year in he U. S., it is obvious that a saving of half, or even a quarter of these lives, is a matter of great moment. The announcement of the discovery and its possibilities was made with the authority of Dr. Milton J. Rosenau of Harvard, under whom Dr. Felton was working, Dr. William H. Park of Manhattan "and other conservative medical men."

Dr. Rosenau: "I believe a distinct advance has been made in the treatment of pneumonia. . . . Before the final word can be said concerning the usefulness and also the limitations of his agent, much scientific work must be done."

Dr. Park: "I regard the prediction hat the new serum will cure 25% to 50% of the cases as too optimistic. If it cures 10% I shall still consider Dr. Felton's work a great advance in medical science. It is not, however, 'a new discovery'; it is simply purifying and condensing of the old serum. The new serum probably will be available to general practitioners in about a month."

Dr. Felton, like Dr. Banting, discoverer of insulin (TIME, Aug. 27), is young, modest, unassuming. Born 32 years ago in Pinegrove Mills, Pa., he spent most of his youth in New Philadelphia, Ohio, was graduated in 1916 from Johns Hopkins University. He has been at Harvard since 1922.