VETERINAEY MEDICINE. 175 



intoxication by each other or by milk. This sensitizing ability and a corre- 

 sponding ability to intoxicate are indistinguishably equivalent, under the con- 

 ditions employed. On immunizing rabbits by repeated injections of paranu- 

 clein or of casein and subsequently testing their sera for precipitins and fixa- 

 tion antibodies, it was found that casein apparently produces them much more 

 readily, giving an antiserum that reacted (fixation) in very high dilution with 

 casein (0.000,000,1 of a 1 per cent solution), but much less strongly with pani- 

 nuclein. Only 1 of 2 antiparanuclein sera showed the presence of antibodies 

 to paranuclein by the delicate fixation reaction, and that in relatively small 

 amounts. The 2 antibodies to casein and to paranuclein are, in the case of 

 casein quantitatively, and in the case of paranuclein absolutely, specific. 



"A solution of the products of complete peptic digestion of casein fails to 

 sensitize to paranuclein and gives no fixation reaction with an anticasein or 

 antiparanuclein serum. It intoxicates animals sensitized to paranuclein but 

 no more markedly than It does normal animals. It also fails to show specific 

 intoxication in an animal that has been sensitized by the same substance. 



" The amino acids, glutamic acid, and leucin, the princii^al components of 

 their kind in casein, and in the sam-e proportion therein present, likewise 

 failed to show antigenic properties. They do not sensitize animals to milk 

 intoxication or to intoxication by themselves, and likewise failed to produce 

 precipitins in rabbits in a preliminary experiment. 



" These experiments are regarded as a fairly systematic analysis of the 

 antigenic properties of split products of a single protein. They are analogous 

 to, though less complete than, the work of Wells on egg white. They seem to 

 present the additional advantage of dealing with what is probably the only 

 protein certainly known chemically, and in its purest form." 



Normal hemag'glutinins in human milk and their transference from the 

 mother to the child, J. von Zubeztcki and R, Wolfsgeubee {Deut. Med. 

 Wchnschr., 39 {1913), No. 5, pp. 210-212). — Normal h^iagglutiuins are present 

 in woman's milk to a greater extent directly after parturition, but the agglutina- 

 tion obtained with different corpuscles varies. The milk from primipara eon- 

 tains more hemagglutinins than multipara and retains them longest. Hem- 

 agglutinins ai*e not present in the serum of sucklings up to the fourteenth day. 



Autotherapy, C. H. Duncan (Lmicet Clin., 106 {1911), No. 19, pp. 472-481; 

 Amer. Vet. Rev., 41 {1912), No. 5, pp. 516-.544). — This is a method of curing 

 sepsis " by placing in the mouth the fresh autogenous toxic substances developed 

 during the course of the disease. The therapeutic value of autogenous pus, 

 given in this manner, is greater than the autogenous vaccine prepared from a 

 pure culture of the offending micro-organism by the method now in vogue." 



The data reported deal with human diseases. See also a previous note by 

 Mangan (E. S. R., 27, p. 684). 



Feeding maize, and hypersusceptibility ag'ainst extracts of maize, D. Cesa- 

 BiANCHi and C. Vaxlardi {Ztschr. Immunitatsf. u. E.rpt. Ther., I, Orig., 15 

 (1912), No. 4-5, pp. 370-408).— This investigation has particular reference to 

 pellagra and shows that maize extracts, when injected intravenously, always 

 produce a certain amount of toxemia. The toxicity, however, not only varies 

 with the method of preparing the extract, but also with the variety of maize 

 used in the test. Much depends upon the degree of heat, and whether the ex- 

 tract has been filtered and exposed to light. Extracts from spoiled maize are 

 usually more poisonous than those prepared from good maize; water extracts 

 are more toxic than alcoholic or ethereal extracts. The pathologic effects pro- 

 duced as the result of injecting the maize intravenously strongly resemble those 

 found in serum anaphylaxis, or where death is produced by injecting peptone. 



