Littauer Fund Results in Discovery of Anti-pneumonia Serum

Within four years after the death of Mrs. Flora Littauer, the wife of the former Congressman Lucius N. Littauer, glove manufacturer of Gloversville, N. Y., and philanthropist, victory over the deadly germ of pneumonia is in sight.

Hospitals in five leading American cities, including New York, Chicago, Washington, Baltimore and Boston, have started the application of a new pneumonia serum developed by scientists as the result of encouragement given by Mr. Littauer following the death of his wife. He established a fund with the New York University for the purpose of seeking the new antibody serum for combating the disease. The serum will be available to all physicians before the end of the present winter, declared Dr. William H. Park, director of laboratories in the city department of Health and chairman of the body of scientists who developed the serum. It has the endorsement of the Academy of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Chicago, New York University, and Bellevue Medical College, Cornell Medical College, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the United States Public Health Service, according to a bulletin of the Medical Information Bureau.

“The production of the new antibody serum,” declared Dr. Jessie M. Bullowa, member of the faculty of the New York University and Bellevue Medical College to whom Mr. Littauer turned for advise when he decided to act, “came through the study of the pneumonia victim himself. Every person recovering from lobar pneumonia has in his blood protective substances against the type of organisms which causes his disease. The development of these protective organisms, or anti-bodies, is one of the mechanisms involved in the patient’s recovery. These antibodies may develop in patients who die, but patients who fail to develop them do not recover.

“What has been done in the production of the new serum is to take these antibodies and reproduce them in horses and when they have reached the proper growth they are ready to be transferred to the patient. These antibodies fortify the patient at a time when he is battling with the invading pneumonia organisms. The antibodies fight and kill the invaders.”

Rabbi Herman Beck, of Oheb Zedek Congregation of Pottsville, Pa., has resigned as national chaplain of the American Legion because heavy demands on his time are taxing his health. He says he has been assured his successor will be another rabbi.