SIGNIFICANCE OF PHENOMENON 361 



allergy Zinsser and Tamiya (1926) justly conclude that the facts 

 concerning the bacterial allergy may be interpreted "as meaning 

 either that we are dealing Avith a type of reaction in which anti- 

 bodies in the ordinary sense of the Avord play no role whatever; 

 or that such antibodies are indeed significant but represent only 

 that part of the mechanism Avhich determines specificity and de- 

 sensitization, another additional factor being required to com- 

 plete the reaction." 



In the folIoAving, attempts will be made by me to correlate 

 some of the characteristic features of bacterial hypersensitiveness 

 \\'\x\\ the facts gained from studies on the phenomenon of local 

 tissue reactivity. 



As may be remembered, it has l)een shown in the ^vork on the 

 latter phenomenon that bacteria produce i}i vitro and i)i vivo 

 sokd^le actixe principles xvhich elicit a non-specific state of re- 

 acti\itv in the tissues. These acti\e principles and also non- 

 bacterial and l^acterial antigen -]-antibody complexes may react 

 with these reacti\e sites. The reactixity may be elicited through 

 the introduction of the reacting factors into the blood stream and 

 the lesions are j^redominantly hemoiThagic and necrotic. The 

 object is then to consider in what intricate connection the state 

 of reactivity defined by the phenomenon under discussion in this 

 monograph may stand x\ ith bacterial allergy. The following facts 

 shoidd be emphasized: 



1. The microorganisms responsible for the infection may liber- 

 ate acti\e princi})les of the phenomenon into the site of tiie in- 

 fection and adjacent tissues, and being solul)le may diffuse into 

 distant tissues by xvay of the general circidation (a view also pos- 

 tulated recently by P. Bordet) . 



2. The infected animal may also possess antibodies to the anti- 

 gens of the bacteria responsible for the infection. 



3. The materials used for parenteral test injections of hyper- 

 sensitiveness (tuberculin, etc.) contain the specific antigen homo- 

 logous to the antibodies actively acquired in the course of the 

 infection. These materials may also contain various amounts of 

 the acti\e principles of the phenomenon or be totally de\()id 

 of it. 



Fecal reactions of bacterial allergy in relation to phenomenon: 



As just mentioned, tuberculous and other bacterial foci possess 



a state of reactivity in terms of the phenomenon of local tissue 



