1919] VETERINARY MEDICINE. 579 



By the action of alcohol and ether on the kidney of the guinea pig and the 

 dog, and also on the corpuscles of the sheep and goat, two fractions may be 

 separated, one soluble in alcohol-ether which retains the fixation power for the 

 original organs and corpuscles and the other insoluble in alcohol-ether which 

 has lost this tixation property. The Conner alone contains the heterolysln. 

 Immunization with these fractions showed that the Insoluble portion can pro- 

 duce hemolysins although it has no fixation power in vitro, and that the soluble 

 fraction, although it has the power to fix hemolysins In vitro, is unable to 

 produce them. A mixture of both fractions is inactive. 



Dissociation experiments showed that no remarkable difference of attraction 

 exists between the heterolysins of guinea pig kidney and of sheep and goat cor- 

 puscles toward both the heterolysins of dog's kidney and the isolysins of sheep 

 and goats. 



Castellani's absorption test, W. Bkoughton-Alcock (Jour. Roy. Army Med. 

 Corps, 31 (1918), So. J h pp. 296-299).— A method of conducting the Castellani 

 absorption test, previously noted (E. S. R., 40, p. 288), is described, the tech- 

 nique of which includes the utilization of a practically defined amount of micro- 

 organisms and a practically defined agglutinin content of a serum. The method 

 is described in detail, and the principles involved are illustrated by a typical 

 example. 



Role of enzyms in the production of natural immunity, M. Belin (Compt. 

 Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris}, 81 (1918), No. 12, pp. 622-625 ) .—The author considers 

 that the normal reactions of oxidation in the body play an important role in 

 the production of natural immunity by protecting the organism against the 

 intoxication which an accumulation of toxic bases would cause. The oxidiza- 

 bility of these toxins presupposes a preliminary splitting of the toxo-proteins 

 by either organic or microbial enzyms, and consequently the conclusion is 

 drawn that the enzyms which are responsible for the normal reactions of 

 hydrolysis and oxidation of proteins must play an important role in natural 

 immunity. 



Role of enzyms in the production of acquired immunity and of anaphy- 

 laxis, M. Belin (Compt. Rend. Soc. Biol. [Paris], 81 (1918), No. 12, pp. 625- 

 628).— The theory is proposed and discussed that acquired immunity, is a func- 

 tion of an increase in the activity of various enzyms and, above all, of the pro- 

 duction of new specific enzyms which can act more rapidly and completely. 

 Similarly, anaphylaxis is considered to be an intoxication brought about by an 

 accumulation of toxic bases which the oxidases are unable to destroy except 

 when augmented by an oxidizing agent, such as potassium permanganate. The 

 " toxogenin " of Richet or the " sensibilisin " of Besredka would thus be the 

 enzyms capable in vivo and in vitro of producing toxic bases — the " apotoxin " 

 of Richet. 



Slow intravenous injection of antiserum to prevent acute anaphylactic 

 shock, J. H. Lewis (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 12 (1919), No. 5, pp. 329, 330). — 

 Experiments are reported in which acute anaphylactic shock has been pre- 

 vented in sensitized animals by giving otherwise fatal doses of diluted antigen 

 intravenously at very slow rates. 



Studies on anaphylatoxins, G. Fischek and L. Kantor (Rev. Inst. Bact. 

 [Argentina}, 1 (1918), No. 4. pp- ^11-^80; abs. in Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 12 

 (1919), No. 3, p. 232). — Anaphylaxis experiments are reported and summarize! 

 as follows : 



Bacterial anaphylatoxin prepared with guinea pig or rat serum is toxic for 

 guinea pigs but not for rats and rabbits. Bacterial anaphylatoxin prepared with 

 serum from rabbits, horses, or dogs is not toxic for guinea pigs nor for any of 



