I040 ORIGIN OF ANTIBODIES 



every known chemical has been injected into animals, and the simultaneous effect on 

 antibody formation and on various organs and tissues of the body has been observed. 

 Madsen^ concluded from his experiments that all inorganic salts stimulated antibody 

 production, a sweeping assertion that many investigators do not confirm, among them 

 Mcintosh and Kingsbury,^ Swift, ^ Arkin,4 and others. Arkin,4 studying immune re- 

 actions in rabbits, decided that drugs which stimulate oxidation also stimulate anti- 

 body production, while drugs which depress oxidation also depress antibody forma- 

 tion. Horgans reviewed the reports of the Danish investigators that the use of man- 

 ganese salts (taken up by the reticulo-endothelial system) injected into horses during 

 immunization increased diphtheria-antitoxin production, but he stated that in his 

 experiments, manganese salts increased the antibody curve in only 50 per cent of the 

 animals. Singer,'' however, confirmed the work of the earlier investigators when he 

 obtained agglutinin in guinea pigs experimentally infected with typhus fever and in- 

 jected with manganese chloride, and failed to obtain agglutinin in animals not re- 

 ceiving the drug. Arsenicals have been found by Arkin,^ Friedberger,^ and others to 

 stimulate antibody production; but Toyama and Kolmer^ observed that the larger 

 doses appear to depress hemolysin and agglutinin in immunized rabbits, although 

 small doses were somewhat stimulating. Swift" found that rabbits treated with sodi- 

 um salicylate before immunization with green producing streptococci and with sheep 

 cells showed diminished complement fixation antibodies, agglutinin, and hemolysin. 

 He concluded that sodium salicylate in some way depressed the power of animals to 

 absorb injected antigen, consequently inhibiting the normal immunity curve. Cook" 

 discovered that animals treated with sodium citrate formed antibodies more intense- 

 ly than did controls and those treated with calcium chloride less intensely than 

 control animals. She explained her results by the theory that permeability of cells is 

 increased by increasing the sodium ion and is depressed by increasing the calcium 

 ion and that the rate of antibody formation is dependent on the rate of absorption of 

 antigen. 



EFPECTS OF INJURIOUS AGENCIES UPON ANTIBODY PRODUCTION 



Roentgen rays in proper dosage destroy lymphoid and myeloid cells, so that their 

 effect on antibody response may be of especial significance. Murphy and Ellis" ob- 

 served that exposure to Roentgen rays made both normal and splenectomized mice 

 more susceptible to tuberculosis; they considered that this result was due to the in- 



1 Madsen, T.: J. State Med., 31, 51. 1923 (Harben lecture). 



2 Mcintosh, J., and Kingsbury, A. N.: Brit. J. Exper. Path., 5, 18. 1924. 



3 Swift, H. F.: /. Exper. Med., 36, 735. 1922. 



1 Arkin, A.: /. Infect. Dis., 16, 349. 1915 {h); ibid., 13, 408. 1913 (a). 



5 Morgan, E. S.: Brit. J. Exper. Path., 6, 108, 1925. 



^Singer, E.: Ztschr.f. Immunitdtsforsch. 11. exper. Thcrap., 46, 28S. 1926. 



7 Arkin, A.: loc. cit. 



* Friedberger, E., and Masuda, N.: Therap. Monatschr., 25, 288. 191 1. 



'Toyama, I., and Kolmer, J. A.: /. hnmunol., 3, 301. 1918. 



"•Swift, H. F.: loc. cit. " Cook, M. W.: J. Immunol., 5, 39. 1920. 



" Murphy, J. B., and Ellis, A. W. M.: /. Exper. Med., 20, 397. 1914. 



