170 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



animal cats might be given a passive immunity to 

 cytost. To this end horses and goats were given a 

 series of injections of autolyzed cat tissue, and after 

 some months blood was withdrawn and the serum 

 separated as in the usual methods for the preparation 

 of antisera, and preserved by the addition of tri- 

 cresol (Turck, 1919). 



The existence of anticytost in horse or goat serum 

 prepared in this fashion was demonstrated as follows. 

 A quantity of the antiserum was mixed with an 

 amount of cat cytost known to be fatal when injected 

 into cats. The mixture was then injected into normal 

 cats. As a rule the animals receiving the cytost-anti- 

 cytost mixture developed severe shock but did not 

 die as did the animals receiving cytost alone. Alter- 

 natively, when injected first with the antiserum and 

 then with a potent cytost preparation, it appeared 

 that the antisera afforded the animals some measure 

 of protection against cytost although the degree of 

 immunity obtained in this manner was in no way as 

 striking as that resulting from active immunization, 

 as described above. While this result proved disap- 

 pointing, it is in harmony with common experience 

 with many bacterial endotoxins, where it has repeat- 

 edly been found impossible to convey a reliable pas- 

 sive immunity by the injection of antisera. 



However, since some degree of success attended 

 these experiments, the writer feels that the results 

 mentioned above favor the concept of an anticytost 

 as a defense mechanism of the organism. In this con- 

 nection it is of interest to recall the investigations of 

 Weichardt (1912), who claimed to have obtained 

 an antitoxin against the toxin of muscular fatigue. 



