Vines,1 in 1920, while treating a patient with hemophilia observed that following the development of a local skin reaction to horse serum, not only did the bleeding cease, but there was also a reduction in the coagulation time of the capillary blood.
In 1926, Mills2 repeated the observations of Vines. He found that patients with hemophilia, when treated by protein sensitization, with a local cutaneous reaction, generated a normally reacting prothrombin. In two patients so treated the clotting time was reduced from twenty to four and one-half minutes in one, and from ten to two and one-half minutes in the other.
Since 1928 we have treated eight children suffering from hemophilia according to the method of Vines and Mills. We soon discovered that the treatment did not completely remove the bleeding tendency, but we did find sufficient improvement in the patients, as evidenced by clinical and laboratory observations,