Pneumonia Vaccine

So shy that he seems secretive, Dr. Lloyd Derr Felton of Johns Hopkins went to Philadelphia last week where he cautiously urged doctors not to use a vaccine which he developed as a pneumonia preventive* (TIME, Sept. 13) until he has better proof of its efficacy.

Last week, however, the Army Medical School, whose technicians Dr. Felton helped to make the vaccine by the gallon, reported that not one of 15,000 CCC men vaccinated last summer with Felton vaccine has yet developed pneumonia. Of another 15,000 men in the same camps, who were not inoculated, several have come down with pneumonia. (Statisticians were still waiting for the pneumonia season to end before making a final count of the casualties.)

On the strength of this apparent success with Felton preventive vaccine, doctors in other CCC camps have inoculated 150,000 more men this winter, leaving a second 150,000 untreated. By doing so they will give Dr. Felton and other conservatives scientific evidence of the value of his vaccine.

* Not to be confused with the pneumonia serums now given to help victims of pneumonia recover. The cost of these serums and of preliminary tests necessary to determine which of 32 types of pneumonia a patient may have, is comparatively high, so that as yet only the rich can afford them, or the very poor, to whom several States this winter have supplied serum free.

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