148 LOCAL TLSSHE REACTIVITY 



111 all my expciinicMits tlicre were always recorded the size and 

 intensily of local reactions jnecedinj^ and following the provoca- 

 tive injection, in order to determine whether the direct reaction 

 to the bacterial filtrates bears any relationship to the size and 

 severity of the hemorrhagic reaction of the phenomenon. The 

 observations of this sort dealt ^vith filtrates derived from various 

 microorganisms (i.e., B. typlwsiis, B. enteriditis, B. tuberculosis, 

 Streptococcus hemolyticus, etc.) culttn^ed in different media and 

 injected into one or several skin sites. 



The direct reactions following the intradermal injections of 

 bacterial filtrates depend not only on the bacterial products pres- 

 ent in the preparation but also on the medium ingredients. For 

 this reason, "agar washings" filtrates in ^vhich there is present a 

 comparatively small amount of extraneous material and bacterial 

 autolytic products, produce definitely w^eaker primary skin reac- 

 tions than broth and tryptic digest broth culture filtrates. Con- 

 centrated products of Ecker and Rimington (1927) elicit greater 

 primary inflammation than filtrates of broth and tryptic digest 

 broth cultines. Conversely, the phenomenon-producing potency 

 of the "agar w^ashings" filtrates is by far superior to the potency 

 of filtrates of cultines made in fluid media and preparations of 

 Ecker and Rimington. 



When single or several preparatory injections are made into 

 the abdominal skin, it is seen that sites which do not show^ any 

 primary reactions may respond severely to the provocative injec- 

 tion. Also sites ^vith erythemas of various intensity and size show 

 approximately equal response to the provocative injection. 



As pointed out before, bacterial filtrates differ in their skin- 

 preparatory and reacting potency. B. typJiosus "agar washings" 

 filtrates contain high skin-preparatory and comparatively high 

 reacting potency, w^iilst meningococcus "agar ^vashings" filtrates 

 contain a lower skin-preparatory potency, and higher reacting 

 potency than the B. typJiosus "agar washings" filtrates. By taking 

 advantage of the possibility of crossing active principles derived 

 from various bacterial filtrates, rabbits were prepared with "agar 

 washings" filtrates in various dilutions and subsequently injected 

 intravenously ^vith 25 reacting iniits of meningococcus "agar 

 washings" filtrates. In this manner it "was possible to obtain typi- 

 cal reactions in skin sites prepared with diliuions of B. typhosus 

 as high as 1: 1000 (provided only one site is prepared) . It may be 

 stated here that intradermal doses of a dilution 1:100 produce 



