1916] VETERINARY MEDICINE. 485 



tions of phenol in water does not in any way inhibit the toxic action of phenol, 

 but rather tends to facilitate absorption and thus hasten death." 



The conditions and characters of the immunity produced in the gTiinea 

 pig by instillation of horse serum into the nose, H. Sewatj. and O. Powell 

 (Jour. Expt. Med., 2Jf (1916), No. 1, pp. 69-86).— The results of the experi- 

 mental worlj submitted are summarized as follows : 



"Normal guinea pigs treated by from four to six instillations of horse serum 

 into the nose on alternate days become either hypersensitive or refractory to 

 an intravenous injection of 0.38 cc. of serum given 16 days after the last 

 instillation. If the amount of serum in each instillation is as much as 0.2 cc, 

 anaphylactic death is caused by the toxic injection. If the amount of senim 

 in each instillation is reduced to 0.04 cc, the first intravenous injection is with- 

 out marked effect, and a second injection and subsequent injections of the same 

 amount of antigen are well tolerated in about half the cases. 



"The effect produced by a given dose of serum, whether protective or 

 anaphylactic depends probably upon the extent of contact with the mucous 

 membrane of the nose. Guinea pigs which, after nasal treatment, have become 

 tolerant to a definite maximum intravenous injection of the antigen appear to 

 increase the degree of their tolerance, at least up to a resting period of more 

 than four months. The same does not hold in animals immunizd by the 

 peritoneal route. 



"The first two or three instillations of a s^ies probably determine the bio- 

 logic character, whether of hypersensitiveness or hyposensitiveness, of reaction 

 toward the serum. It is probable that, contrary to the case in parenteral 

 sensitization, hypersensitiveness and protection, respectivly, set up by nasal 

 instillations and not followed by parenteral injections, gradually disappear in 

 about 50 to 100 days. We have failed in attempts to eliminate hyper- 

 sensitiveness, due to subcutaneous injection of serum, by nasal instillations 

 which would protect the normal animal from the development of anaphylaxis." 



Prom the results it is indicated that " the peculiar value of rest in the treat- 

 ment of infection depends upon the fact that absorption of minimal amounts 

 of toxic matter produces a positive protective reaction in the organism, while 

 the absorption of larger amounts renders the cells hypersensitive. The biologic 

 response to the intoxication is probably chiefly determined within the first 48 

 hours of absorption, and, therefore, rest at the beginning of an infective process 

 has preponderant prophylactic value." 



It is indicated that the principles of prophylaxis evolved under these rela- 

 tively simple conditions should be applied in the study of infoetious diseases. 



Immunity conferred by the transfer of immune and of mixed immune and 

 sensitized serums, H. Sew all, W. C. Mitchell, and C. Powell {Jour. Amer. 

 Med. Assoc, 67 {1916), No. 2, pp. 95-98). — The work reported was undertaken 

 to discover, if possible, whether the blood serum of guinea pigs, rendered 

 immune to considerable intravenous injections of horse serum by a preceding 

 course of nasal instillation of the serum, has a different biological effect from 

 the serum of highly sensitized animals when injected intraperitoneally into 

 normal guinea pigs. 



It is deemed that the experimental results reported, taken in connection with 

 earlier findings (see the previous abstract) justify the following tentative con- 

 clusions : 



"A foreign protein injected into a normal animal sets up reactive processes 

 leading to the formation, in this field, of two antibodies having opposite char- 

 acters; one tends to induce, and the other to avert, the establishment of the 

 anaphylactic state. Serum containing an excess of the anaphylactic antibody, 

 when transferred to normal animals, renders them, as is well known, passively 



