Regarding this, Dr. Coley says he cannot say exactly what part the bacillus prodigiosus plays in the cure of sarcoma, but remarks that the only cases cured were treated by the combination.
This preparation, the combined toxins, had been given the name of Coley’s fluid, and that used during the last seven years has been made by Dr. B. H. Buxton of Loomis Laboratory.
Until about five years ago the toxins were made from cultures from a fatal case of erysipelas, but since that, sufficient strength has been obtained by passing the cultures through about fifty rabbits. The method of the preparation is virtually this: the mixed unfiltered toxins of the streptococcus of erysipelas and the bacillus prodigiosus are made from cultures grown together in the same bouillon and sterilized by heating to 58 degrees C. and then diluted in a sterilized menstruum.
In a recent conversation with Dr. Buxton he said that at present he made a double sterilization and then added some drugs such as thymol to preserve the preparation.
Dr. Coley, in his exhaustive article in the Jour. Am. Med. Assoc., August 20 and 27, 1898, affixed a table of fifty-seven cases of cancerous tumors treated with either his fluid or other preparation of erysipelatous poison with cure, or at least disappearance of the then present manifestation of the disease and lengthening of the usual period of a recurrence of the condition.
The following is a list of cases of sarcoma of the nose and throat treated by cultures of erysipelas, or Coley’s fluid, the physicians in charge, and the time the patient is living after treatment at the time of the report in Dr. Coley’s paper, in 1898:
(a) A spindle-celled sarcoma of the neck and tonsils, inoculated culture—patient living six years after.
(b) A spindle-celled sarcoma of the parotid; it had been extirpated twice previous to treatment—patient living one year after.
(c) A sarcoma (mixed celled) of the parotid—patient living three years after. The foregoing under Dr. Coley’s care.
(d) A spindle-celled sarcoma of the palate and pharynx extending to the vocal cords—Dr. W. B. Johnson—living four and three-quarter years.