{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,27]],"date-time":"2026-03-27T20:05:46Z","timestamp":1774641946852,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,6]],"date-time":"2022-04-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1649203200000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Br J Hist Sci"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>In the years around 1900 one of the most significant practical consequences of new styles of bacteriological thought and practice was the development of preventive vaccines and therapeutic sera. Historical scholarship has highlighted how approaches rooted in the laboratory methods of Robert Koch, Louis Pasteur and their collaborators were transformed in local contexts and applied in diverse ways to enable more effective disease identification, prevention and treatment. Amongst these, the anti-anthrax serum developed by the Italian physician Achille Sclavo (1861\u20131930) has received little to no attention from historians. This article positions Sclavo's serum as a neglected but significant presence in British microbiology, which achieved widespread uptake amidst a wave of optimism, despite prolonged uncertainty about its mechanism of action and dosage. After being introduced to Britain in 1904 by the enterprising first medical inspector of factories Thomas Morison Legge, within a matter of months the serum became regarded by medical practitioners as an effective treatment of cutaneous anthrax, though access to \u2018fresh\u2019 serum and the necessary speedy diagnosis remained problematic. Like the disease anthrax itself, discussion of \u2018Sclavo's serum\u2019 was out of all proportion to the relatively low number of cases, reflecting a deep-seated fascination with the wider possibilities afforded by effective serum therapy.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/s0007087422000012","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,6]],"date-time":"2022-04-06T08:50:20Z","timestamp":1649235020000},"page":"207-226","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["\u2018A remedy for this dread disease\u2019: Achille Sclavo, anthrax and serum therapy in early twentieth-century Britain"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"55","author":[{"given":"James F.","family":"Stark","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1053\/tvjl.1999.0435"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref30","volume-title":"Handbuch der Serumtherapie und Serumdiagnostik in der Veterin\u00e4r-medizin unter Mitwirkung","author":"Klimmer","year":"1911"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref15","volume-title":"Anthrax: A History","author":"Swiderski","year":"2004"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref21","first-page":"55","article-title":"Henry Toussaint et Louis Pasteur: Une rivalit\u00e9 pour un vaccin","volume":"44","author":"Chevallier-Jussiau","year":"2010","journal-title":"Histoire des sciences m\u00e9dicales"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-56714-3"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref7","volume-title":"Spreading Germs: Disease Theories and Medical Practice in Britain, 1865\u20131900","author":"Worboys","year":"2000"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0269889708001695"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jhmas\/52.4.398"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0022172400054036"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref17","volume-title":"Autobiografia Scientifica del Prof. Dott. Achille Sclavo","author":"Sclavo","year":"1954"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref1","volume-title":"The Making of Modern Anthrax, 1875\u20131920: Uniting Local, National and Global Histories of Disease","author":"Stark","year":"2013"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4419-1339-5_6"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0025727300050274"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0025727300001198"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref11","first-page":"169","article-title":"Social policy and city politics: tuberculosis reporting in New York, 1889\u20131900","volume":"49","author":"Fox","year":"1975","journal-title":"Bulletin of the History of Medicine"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1353\/book.3265","volume-title":"Pneumonia before Antibiotics: Therapeutic Evolution and Evaluation in Twentieth-Century America","author":"Podolsky","year":"2006"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref29","article-title":"Treatment of human anthrax with penicillin","volume":"80","author":"Ahmad","year":"1945","journal-title":"Indian Medical Gazette"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/096777200401200407"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref10","volume-title":"The Gospel of Germs: Men, Women, and the Microbe in American Life","author":"Tomes","year":"1998"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1057\/s41599-019-0251-8"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref4","volume-title":"Emil von Behring: Infectious Disease, Immunology, Serum Therapy","author":"Linton","year":"2005"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref23","volume-title":"Sulla preparazione del siero anticarbonchioso","author":"Sclavo","year":"1895"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/shm\/hkn094"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref20","volume-title":"Cittadella della scienza: L'Istituto Sclavo a Siena nei cento anni della sua storia (1904\u20132004)","author":"Maggi","year":"2004"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref16","first-page":"60","volume-title":"Dangerous Trade: Histories of Industrial Hazard across a Global World","author":"Carter","year":"2012"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref27","volume-title":"Networks of Innovation: Vaccine Development at Merck, Sharp and Dohme, and Mulford, 1895\u20131995","author":"Galambos","year":"1995"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/00000441-192109000-00010"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/08109028908629039"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.shpsc.2006.12.003"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref19","first-page":"453","article-title":"Achille Sclavo, maestro e precursore dell'odierna medicina preventiva","volume":"15","author":"Ragzzi","year":"1954","journal-title":"Annali della Sanita Pubblica"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S000768050000297X"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref6","volume-title":"Diphtheria Serum as a Technological Object: A Philosophical Analysis of Serotherapy in France 1894\u20131900","author":"Simon","year":"2017"},{"key":"S0007087422000012_ref18","first-page":"181","article-title":"The public science of Louis Pasteur: the experiment on anthrax vaccine in the popular press of the time","volume":"19","author":"Bucchi","year":"1997","journal-title":"History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences"}],"container-title":["The British Journal for the History of Science"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S0007087422000012","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,30]],"date-time":"2023-03-30T12:27:43Z","timestamp":1680179263000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S0007087422000012\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,6]]},"references-count":33,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,6]]}},"alternative-id":["S0007087422000012"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/s0007087422000012","relation":{},"ISSN":["0007-0874","1474-001X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0007-0874","type":"print"},{"value":"1474-001X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,6]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Copyright \u00a9 The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of British Society for the History of Science","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}]}}