Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

92
THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.
substances such as taka-diastase, pancrea- It thus seems that here, as in antitoxic im-
tin, rennin, myrosin, invertin, emulsin, munity, there is no law applicable to all
pepsin in acid or alkaline solution, inglu- cases, but that there are certain limitations
vin, malt, papain, stropin, strychnin, mor- which it will be necessary to work out.
phine and caffein. It is not affected by The explanation of anaphylaxis is not
freezing at 1.5 degrees Fahr. nor by filtra- certain. Several theories have been adtion
through porcelain, drying, precipita- vanced. As stated previously, Rosenau
tion aud dialysis, and exposure to the and Anderson believe that the substance
X-rays. Extremely minute quantities of which sensitizes the guinea pig is the same
the serum may cause death in the guinea which later poisons it and they think that
pig, e. g., .1 cc. profound chemical changes probably occur
A certain time must elapse between the in the central nervous system as a result of
injections before the animal becomes ana- the first injection. Vaughan, in 1906, exphylactic.
This period is from ten to plained the phenomenon by an application
twelve days. Second injections within this of lihrlich's side chain theor\'. He thinks
period have no ill effect. When an animal that the first injection of the strange proteid
has once entered into the condition of ana- is broken up into components, one of which
phylaxis it apparently lasts as long as the is toxic, but this breaking up takes place so
animal lives. slowly that the animal is not poisoned. The
Rosenau and Anderson, as well as Otto, body cells, however, learn by the first inhave
shown that guinea pigs may be ren- jection how to break up the complex moledered
anaphylactic by feeding them meat cule. When the next injection is made,
or serum. It is interesting along this line then, the proteid is violently disrupted and
that Uhlenhuth has found that the blood of the large quantities of toxic principle thus
rabbits becomes capable of precipitating liberated cause poisoning. Vaughan and
egg albumin after feeding for some time Wheeler, in 1907, elaborated this theory
with this substance and Metalnikoff has re- further by studies upon white of egg and
ported immunization after feeding one ani- bacterial proteids. They believe that in
mal with the blood of another species. the case of white of egg the poisonous por-
A most interesting fact also has been tion so influences certain cells of the body
worked out by Rosenau and Anderson and that a new ferment, in the form of zymothat
is that the hypersusceptibility develop- gen, is elaborated which remains in the
ed in a female guinea pig may be transmit- cells and takes part in the rapid breaking
ted directly to her young. This transmis- up of the proteid molecule at the second insion
is solely a maternal function. The jection.
milk of the mother was entirely excluded Gay and Southard found in guinea pigs
as a factor in the transmission. dying from a reaction and in those chloro-
Roseuau and Anderson have shown also formed that had previously recovered from
that guinea pigs may be actively but not a reaction what they consider as characterpassively
immunized against anaphylaxis; istic lesions. They found considerable
in other words, anti-anaphylaxis may be haemorrhages, in one or several organs,
induced. This may be arrived atby(l) both macroscopic and microscopic. Gasrepeated
injections of serum during the pe- trie haemorrhages were especially frequent,
riod of incubation; or (2) by recovery from They also found fatty changes in voluntary
a reaction due to a second injection during muscle fibres, heart muscle fibres and in
the stage of anaphylaxis. Besredka and nerve fibres. Their explanation of ana-
Steinhardt question this condition as a true phylaxis is that there is a substance in
immunity, but think it rather a return of horse serum, which they call anaphylactin,
the sensitized guinea pig to the normal which is not absorbed into the tissues, is
state. Gay and Southard also rather think not changed and is very slowly eliminated,
that the guinea pig is in a "refractory" con- Thus, after an injection of horse serum,
dition due to a prolongation of the period anaphylactin remains and acts as a conof
incubation rather than that they have stant irritant to the body cells so that their
been actively immunized. Rosenau and activity for the other elements of horse se-
Anderson, however, believe that the condi- rum is greatly increased. At the end of
tion is one of true immunity. two weeks constant stimulation by the ana-
Another most interesting phase of this phylactin, if another injection of serum is
subject is the induction of immunity to spe- given, the cells are overwhelmed in the excific
bacteria by rendering animals anaphy- ercise of their increased assimilating funclactic
to the proteids of the bacteria. This tions and functional equilibrium is disturb-
Rosenau and Anderson have been able to do ed to such an extent that either local or
in the guinea pig with extracts of colon and general death occurs.
typhoid bacilli. They failed to obtain im- Besredka and Steinhardt think that anaraunity
in their experiments with anthrax, phylaxis and anti-anaphylaxis are phenom-