l60 LOCAL TLSSUE REACTIVITY 



It is interesting to note that some of the guinea pigs studied by 

 Debonera, Tzortzakis and Falrhetti died shortly after the intra- 

 venous injection of B. coli toxin. The postmortem examination 

 of the animals showed pseudo-tuberculosis. It is quite possible 

 that the preparatory effect of vaseline in spontaneously infected 

 guinea pigs did not consist in the primary elicitation of the 

 necessary state of reactivity, but simply in localization of the 

 toxic factors in vaseline-treated skin sites with subsequent elicita- 

 tion of reactivity by means of these localized factors. 



P. Bordet (19^56/;) observed that tiie intracutaneous injection 

 of talcum did not prepare the skin to the ])henomenon. 



As is seen, a great variety of non-bacterial substances capable of 

 producing various types and degrees of inflammation, \'ascidar 

 damage, and other injinious local effects, consistently fail to elicit 

 the state of local skin reactivity described. Thus far, the elicita- 

 tion of this state remains an exclusive property of active bacterial 

 principles of characteristics defined. 



EFFECT OF NONBACTERIAL SUBSTANCES UPON THE STATE OF 

 REACTIVITY TO BACTERIAL FILTRATES 



In attempts to study the nature of the reactivity, experiments 

 were also carried out in order to determine wdiether any of the 

 j)harmacological substances described belo\v ^vould be capable of 

 modifying the state of reactivity elicited by means of the active 

 bacterial jninciples, notably: 



Ascorbic acid : 



The j)rej)arati()n \vas injected in a dose of 100 mg. per kilo of 

 body ^veight. The injections were given inunediately after the 

 intradermal jjreparatory injection of a ])acterial filtrate and fif- 

 teen minutes, one-half hoiu', six hours, and t^venty-four hours 

 following the preparation. T^venty-four hours after the intrader- 

 mal injection of the bacterial filtrate the rabbits thus treated re- 

 ceived 50 units of meningococcus Ciroup III "agar washings" 

 filtrate. Ascor])ic acid failed to produce any effect upon the phe- 

 nomenon. These experiments Avere done in collaboration ^vith 

 Dr. B. Schick. 



Alypin: 



The time necessary to j)roduce anesthesia with the alypin em- 

 ployed was tested on the rabbit's coujunctixa. Fi\e per cent solu- 



