[The anti-diphtheria serum and the case of Langerhans].

Abstract

An eighteen-month old boy called Ernst Langerhans died shortly after being injected with a prophylactic dose of anti-diphtheria serum in April 1896. The father, a well-known pathologist in Berlin, claimed, in the obituary notice, that his son had been poisoned by Behring's anti-diphtheria serum. This paper describes the tragic events of Spring 1896: the death of Ernst Langerhans, the official investigations that followed as well as the reactions in the daily newspapers and the medical journals. The death of Ernst Langerhans afforded the opponents of the new serotherapy an opportunity to call into question the whole immunological concept. Supporters of the serotherapy, in turn, defended it against these attacks. The spectacular nature of Ernst Langerhans's death combined with the fact that he came from a prominent family of physicians made the event a public scandal. The tuberculine affair which had happened only a few years earlier was another reason for the public concern. Finally, the "Langerhans case" was a scandal because of the way in which Robert Langerhans published the death notice also causing resentment within the scientific community. Indeed, the publication of the accusation was one of the reasons why the "Langerhans case" failed to provoke a crisis with respect to the new therapy, as the central argument was displaced onto wider ethical questions. Furthermore, the medical administration had learned from the tuberculine affair, and had subsequently implemented a large confidence-inspiring system of quality control. The "official" cause of death, following the investigations into the case, was proclaimed to be an accident; a tragic piece of bad luck.