I026 TUBERCULIN AND THE TUBERCULIN REACTION 



mal was injected into the normal animal simultaneously with the tuberculin. Kraus, 

 Loewenstein and Volk/ Selter/ Klopstock/ and others could not confirm this. 



Mcjunkin^ found that a Berkefeld-filtered extract of the exudate occurring on in- 

 traperitoneal injection of tubercle bacilli into a guinea pig with peritoneal tuberculosis 

 would sensitize a normal guinea pig to tuberculin. He reconciled this with the prev- 

 alent view that tubercle bacillus infection is required before marked and lasting sen- 

 sitiveness to tuberculin develops, by the theory that he had accomplished in the peri- 

 toneal reaction what takes place spontaneously in the body before sensitization takes 

 place, viz., action of tuberculous tissue on the tubercle bacillus and its products. 

 Lange^ secured similar results. 



Zinsser and Tamiya'' confirmed the results of Mcjunkin and Lange, without se- 

 curing strong sensitization, however. They also confirmed the results of the majority 

 of previous investigators that blood serum of tuberculous animals, or of animals inocu- 

 lated with dead bacilli, does not activate tuberculin (O T) so that it will produce the 

 tuberculin reaction in normal animals, or neutralize it so that it fails to affect the 

 tuberculous. On the other hand, in a number of trials, although inconstantly and ir- 

 regularly, they were able to obtain reactions in normal animals with incubated mix- 

 tures of Old Tuberculin and tuberculous tissue. Neither the tuberculous tissue (hu- 

 man and guinea pig lung) nor the tuberculin alone caused reaction in the normal ani- 

 mal. Hence the authors concluded that in some manner, perhaps through specific 

 enzyme-like action, the tuberculous tissue had made the tuberculin toxic. The con- 

 ception is similar to that of Vaughan on toxic and non-toxic fractions of proteins and 

 of Friedberger on anaphylatoxin. Zinsser emphasizes the close association of the phe- 

 nomenon described with the cells of the tuberculous animal, the blood not being in- 

 volved. 



This result is in apparent contradiction with those which I secured in two previ- 

 ous investigations. 7 These were based on the fact that the testis of the tuberculous 

 guinea pig is extremely sensitive to tuberculin, necrosis resulting when small amounts 

 are injected into it. If this necrosis is the result of interaction between the testis cells 

 and tuberculin it might be expected that if tuberculin and the crushed testis of a 

 tuberculous animal were intimately mixed for a few hours the tuberculin might be 

 activated by the sensitive tissue so as to become toxic for normal tissue, or be bound 

 or neutralized so as to fail to elicit a tuberculin reaction in a tuberculous guinea pig. 

 As a matter of fact, neither of these results occurred. Tuberculin mixed with ground 

 testis tissue known to be exquisitely sensitive to tuberculin, and tuberculin injected 

 into the living testis of the tuberculous guinea pig in the smallest quantities recogni- 

 zable by the most delicate method and left there twenty-four hours, failed to undergo 



' Kraus, R., Loewenstein, E., and Volk, R.: Deutsche med. Wchnschr., 37, 3S9. 1911. 

 ^Seller, H. : Zlschr.f. Immunilatsfotsch. u. exper. Therap., 32, 325. 192 1. 

 3 Klopstock, F.: ihid., 40, 27. 1924. 

 ■• Mcjunkin, F. A.: J. Exper. Med., 33, 751. 1921, 

 'Lange, L. B.: /. Med. Research, 44, 293. 1923-24. 

 * Zinsser, H., and Tamiya, T. : loc. cil. 



'Long, E. R., and Seibcrt, I'\ B.: ./..1..V..1., 85, 650. 1925; Tr. 21st .Ann. Meeting, Nut. Ttihm. 

 Assoc, p. 351. 1925. 



