I9I4] Alfred P. Lothrop 457 



A series of experiments were undertaken to test complement devia- 

 tion on the blood of tuberculous animals but the results obtained 

 varied with the different strains of tubercle bacilli used as antigen. 

 In general, however, experiments showed that the blood of guinea 

 pigs, and especially of rabbits, often contains specific antibody 

 against tuberculous antigen, 



Having established this fact, an attempt was made to ascertain 

 whether this antibody is a bacteriolysin. The series of experiments 

 were performed both in vitro and in vivo. 



In the course of this last series of experiments a very interesting 

 phenomenon was noticed, namely, when normal guinea pigs were 

 injected intraperitoneally with a mixture of the serum of a tuber- 

 culous guinea pig with peritoneal exudate resulting f rom the injection 

 of a small amount (10,000) of tubercle bacilli in the peritoneal cav- 

 ity of another highly immunized guinea pig, a local reaction often 

 resulted at the site of inoculation, followed by a rise of temperature. 

 This local reaction was especially pronounced when the peritoneal 

 wall was punctured several times for the purpose of removing a 

 sample of the exudate and in this way probably a part of the mixture 

 was introduced from within the peritoneal cavity under the skin of 

 the animal. 



In analyzing this phenomenon it was found that the peritoneal 

 exudate employed in these experiments could be conveniently re- 

 placed by crude tuberculin as prepared by the Board of Health of 

 N. Y., but not very satisfactorily by a Suspension of washed tubercle 

 bacilli. The non- washed (possibly partly autolyzed) Suspension 

 of tubercle bacilli, especially if not freshly prepared, could also be 

 used successfully. Since then a number of tests have been per- 

 formed, in which guinea pig serum was replaced by the serum of 

 tuberculous patients, and it was found that the reaction, although 

 not very constant, is of prognostic value in tuberculosis. 



While the work is still in progress, the experiments performed 

 to date seem to show that the complement is an important factor in 

 the phenomenon, inasmuchas heated sera failed to give this reaction, 

 yet if treated with an addition of complement, and left at room tem- 

 perature for a Short time, they were reactivated. Whether the re- 

 action is due to the liberation of an anaphylatoxin from the mixture 

 of the serum containing the toxogenin and complement with the 



