Félix d’Herelle en de bacteriofaagtherapie: de laboratoriumtafel naast het ziekbed

Felix d’Herelle and bacteriophage-therapy: the lab-bench besides the sick-bed. Felix d'Herelle (1873-1949) decribed in 1917 an in vitro phenomenon which implied a marked lysis of a bacteria-culture. He presumed that this was caused by an ultrafiltrable, living virus and called it Bacteriophage. It is argued that his ideas about bacteriophage can be placed in a Pasteurian tradition. Ever since his first article he put forward that this lysis would also occurred in vivo and that recovery from a bacterial infection was assured by this bacteriophage. This implied a therapeutical usage of bacteriophage. To promote these conceptions he felt himself obliged to criticize traditional immunology, viz, humoral and cellular mechanisms. Especially the idea of bacteriolytic sera was attacked by D'Herelle, In his opinion this traditional immunology (endogenous immunity) had hardly a share in recovery from bacterial infection. He claimed that this was done by the exogenous immunity: the bacteriophage. D'Herelle's general criticism on the, then current serological practice was that they studied non-natural infectious diseases. Because of the obligation to study natural diseases and the characteristics of bacteria and bacteriophages (viz. variability) he, in fact, pleaded for an integration of the (bacteriological) laboratory and the clinic.