374 BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF RADIATION 



ments heating of the blood close to the body surface as a result of infra- 

 red components of the light used may not have been avoided. It may 

 well account for their results. 



It is not certain whether similar criticism might not be directed at 

 X-ray experiments also, but here there is more pronounced leucocytosis 

 or leucopenia depending on the dosage and the region irradiated. 

 Increase in bacteriolytic power was reported by Manoukhine (114), 

 Heidenhain and Fried (80), and Fried (65). Relatively small doses were 

 given in all these cases, much less than an erythema dose. Both human 

 and laboratory animal studies are included. Lawen (103) found no 

 effect, perhaps because of the dosage he used which was apparently 

 rather higher than those mentioned, or because he failed to make observa- 

 tions at the right time to detect what is at best a quickly transitory effect. 



Hektoen (82) claims to have measured opsonins in sera of immunized 

 animals, but since he nowhere makes any explicit statement and his 

 tables refer either to hemolysin or to ''antibody" otherwise unspecified, 

 we can only guess his findings by analogy with those on hemolysin. If 

 the analogy is valid, massive X-ray doses after immunization have no 

 effect, as found by earlier workers; but heavy doses some days preceding 

 immunization impede or prevent opsonin formation. 



The work of Dresel and Freund (45) on "plakin," the B. anthracis 

 lysin of sera of horses, rabbits, etc., appears to refer to something other 

 than a bacteriolysin. At best the bacteriolysins studied by all these 

 workers seem to be far from specific in their action (cf. 65). 



Several workers have noticed increased resistance of patients or 

 laboratory animals to purulent infections after X-irradiation, and suggest 

 increased bactericidal power of the blood as a probable reason. It is 

 not clear how such cases should be classified, and the evidence is far from 

 convincing (Manoukhine, 114, 115; Serena, 147; Lusztig, 111; also, for 

 thorium X, Lippmann, 106). 



Changes in the bactericidal power of blood as a result of opsonin 

 production or destruction by the radiations of radioactive substances do 

 not appear to occur, at least when tolerable dosages are administered 

 (Reiter, 137; Albela, 4). 



Alexin Fixation and Syphilitic Antibody 



Attempts to produce syphihtic antibodies in the blood of syphilitic 

 patients with negative Wassermann reactions by injection of thorium X 

 were unsuccessful (Lippmann, 106). At the same time it was not found 

 possible to abolish even by fatal doses of ultra-violet radiation the normal 

 positive Wassermann reaction of rabbit blood serum (Friedberger and 

 Scimone, 67). 



Although Fiorini and Zironi (58, 59) speak of " Komplement-Ablen- 

 kung," they evidently refer not to deviation but to fixation of alexin. 



