THE SUCCESSFUL USE OF A TUBER- CULOUS METHYLIC ANTIGEN IN

EXTERNAL TUBERCULOSA.

By Major V. LARERNADIE, M.n., m.s.p.E. (Paris), and

Medical Officer ANDRE ZEGANADIN, m.s.m.h.t. (Paris),

Chief and Assistant of the Research Laboratory of Researches, Pondicherry (French India).

For numerous practitioners, the question of the cure of tuberculosis by specific agents is not

yet solved. There were too many deceptions with the use of tuberculin, and many doctors have come back to the older and more prudent methods which reinforced the means of defence of the

organism by chemical or physical agents. Research workers, however, have never lost the

hope of curing tuberculosis by the corresponding bacilli or by their more or less modified extracts. Among the recent methods of treatment, it may

be useful to point out the good effects of the

methylic antigen prepared by Boquet and Negre, at the Pasteur Institute of Paris.* This method is very simple and can be easily controlled; it deserves to be adopted as a routine, in hospitals as well as in general practice?at least in external tuberculosis. The product is obtained by the maceration of

tubercle bacilli in methylic alcohol and filtration.

(1) This extract is used at first diluted at 1 : 10, by subcutaneous injection, at a dose of 0.25 c.c.

The rectal temperature must be taken carefully twice a day. A little feverish reaction is com-

mon, and the following injection should be given only when this reaction is over. In general, two injections may be made weekly. In case of a

strong reaction, the dose should not be increased, if the reaction has been weak, the dose is increased

by 0.25 c.c. (that is to say 0.50, to 0.75 c.c.). One arrives in this way after 4, 6, or 8 injections at a dose of 1 c.c., which is then repeated several times.

Pure antigen (not methylic) must then be used. The doses are given in a similar way of progres- sion, say from 0.25 to 1 c.c. But here, the

temperature and the general condition must be very carefully observed. A stronger dose should be given only if the feverish reaction has been

very slight. On the contrary, if the reaction has

been marked, the same dose should be repeated till the patient keeps a normal temperature.

It is according to this method that we have

treated the following patients:? Case 1.?Tang, male, aged 30. Cervical cold abscess

(on the right side) of the size of a pigeon's egg. Received 19 injections of methyl antigen from 15th

December, 1927 to 19th November, 1928. Practically cured.

Case 2.?Ant, male, aged 20. Cervical cold abscess

(right side). Received 14 injections of methyl antigen from the 1st November, 1928 to 26th March, 1928. Practically cured. Case 3.?R. And, male, aged 31. Sterno-clavicular

arthritis (left side) with fistula. Received 19 injections

* The Pasteur Institute supplies 1 c.c. phials of methyl, antigen, pure or diluted.

692 THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE. [Dec., 1929.

of methyl antigen from 12th November, 1928 to 1st May, 1928. Fistula closed up, arthritis practically cured. Case 4.?Mar., male, aged 46. Sterno-clavicular

arthritis (right side). Received 15 injections of methyl antigen from 23rd March, 1928 to 18th May, 1928. Practically cured. Case 5.?Can., female, aged 27. Submaxillary lym-

phadenitis (right side). Received 23 injections from 18th May, 1928 to 15th August, 1928, on which date she left us of her own accord, the volume of the lymph- nodes having come back almost to the normal.

Case 6.?P. Laz., male, aged 17. Coxo-femoral arthritis (right side) with impossibility of walking, patient bed-ridden for one month. Received 30 injec- tions of methyl antigen from 16th June, 1928 to 21st September, 1928. The patient left us of his own accord, not cured, but very much improved, walking with a

stick. Case 7.?Ratt., female, aged 9. Cervical lymphadenitis

(left side). Received 15 injections of methyl antigen from 15th July, 1928 to 13th August, 1928. Practically cured. Case 8.?Vail., female, aged 30. Submaxillary

lymphadenitis (right side). Received 17 injections of

methyl antigen from 30th July, 1928 to 10th October, 1928. She left us of her own accord, the volume of the lymph-nodes having come back almost to the normal. Case 9.?Rang., male, aged 45. Sterno-clavicular

arthritis (left side). Received 23 injections of methyl antigen from 31st July, 1928 to 1st November, 1928. Practically cured. Case 10.?Ratt., male, aged 40. Cervical cold abscess

(right side) with fistula and sterno-clavicular arthritis. Received 22 injections of methyl antigen from 7th

August, 1928 to 1st November. 1928. Abscess and fistula closed up, arthritis practically cured. Case 11.?Sev. Al., male, aged 16. Tumor albus of

the left knee joint. Received 24 injections of methyl antigen from 24th September, 1928 to 29th December, 1928. At that date the patient walked easily and could be considered as practically cured. Case 12.?Gov., male, aged 50. Cold abscess of the

left axilla with fistula. Received 14 injections of methyl antigen from 2nd August, 1928. On the 1st October he is continuing the treatment and he is already much better.