Word: serums
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Physicians make a sharp distinction between infectious hepatitis, usually spread by fecal matter, and serum hepatitis, or "needle jaundice," because the latter is carried only by blood.* That, and the fact that the serum type takes two or more months to develop (three times as long as the infectious variety), are the most obvious differences. Both kinds of hepatitis make the patient equally miserable, causing headache, fever, nausea and loss of appetite. In most cases, jaundice appears. Though hepatitis is rarely fatal, it may cause severe liver damage...
...serum of guinea pigs is especially rich in complement, an essential factor in the Wassermann and other tests. Dr. Heidelberger and his associates (he is now professor of immunochemistry at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons) found chemical ways of making guinea-pig serum go twice as far. As he puts it. with a dry smile: "Rivers of guinea-pig blood could have been saved if these methods had been known 50 years ago." He is too modest to add that millions of blood tests now performed in research laboratories every day are simpler, quicker, cheaper...
...Heidelberger suggested, during a recent trip to India, using the elephant as a mass producer of serum fractions. To transform the elephant into a mobile factory of anti-antibodies for diagnostic tests seems a simple trick to the ingenious Dr. Heidelberger-for recreation, he once rearranged a Brahms trio so that he could play the horn part on his clarinet...
...Cohn, a perfectionist, this was grossly wasteful. Usually, only one or two components of plasma were needed for each case. So he set to work in his laboratory, separating blood fluid into its many fractions, and soon had a practical method for extracting serum albumin. This was less bulky than plasma, kept better, and was far more economical. But it was not good enough for Cohn...
During a scientific career which spanned more than 30 years, Dr. Cohn aided in the development of liver extract for the treatment of pernicious anemia, serum albumin for use in cases of battlefield and accident shock, and several other medically important blood products. His work led directly to the recent discovery of gamma globulin as an immunizing agent against polio...