THE BACTERIOPHAGE

Abstract

There appeared inThe Journalduring December 1934 a series of articles on bacteriophage therapy by Drs. M. D. Eaton and Stanhope Bayne-Jones.¹The phases of the subject covered included the experimentally determined facts relating to the bacteriophage phenomenon, the laboratory and clinical evidence for and against the therapeutic usefulness of bacteriophage and the role of so-called antivirus in crude lysates containing bacteriophage. The survey served most effectively as a timely basis for determining the status of commercial phage preparations. In the six years since the report of Eaton and Bayne-Jones was published, much more information about both phage itself and its clinical utility has accumulated; it has been thought advisable therefore to supplement their paper with an analysis of the recent literature, using as a background certain of their summarized material. We propose to consider the following subjects: 1. The nature of bacteriophage and its mode of action