I046 ORIGIN OF ANTIBODIES 



of infection, and the immunity response to infection varies with different animals 

 and with different organisms. 



Food deficiencies were investigated by Zilva' and others. He found that diets low 

 in iron or calcium or potassium or sodium chloride had practically no effect on anti- 

 body production. However, those low in phosphorus were associated with a lower 

 agglutinin and hemolysin titre than normal diets. More recently Werkman, Nelson, 

 and Fulmer^ have investigated diets low in vitamin C. Although guinea pigs on such 

 a diet were less resistant to anthrax and pneumococcus infections, specific agglutinin 

 to B. typhosus did not differ from that of normal animals. 



LOCAL IMMUNITY 



Local immunity offers another method of approach to the solution of antibody 

 production. Many immunologists have believed that antibodies are formed at the 

 point of injection of the antigen and that the immunity spreads from this area through- 

 out the body. Local immunity has been investigated by testing the concentration of 

 the antibodies at the site of inoculation to determine whether they are in higher con- 

 centration there than elsewhere in the body. These investigators' method of combating 

 disease, therefore, has been to attempt immunization of the specific portal of entry of 

 various injurious antigens. Pasteur prevented anthrax in sheep by skin immunization, 

 believing that sheep contracted anthrax exclusively by that route. Cook and Smith-' 

 found that after cutaneous immunization skin, free of blood, would give a precipitin 

 reaction. Rivers,'' Gay,^ and others have claimed that intracutaneous vaccination 

 protects against erysipelas more effectively than other methods of immunization. Bes- 

 redka*^ learned that he could protect the skin from staphylococcus and streptococcus 

 infection by placing a compress soaked in the bacterial filtrate over the skin area 

 twenty-four hours before an inoculation of the organism. Gay^ claims that he ob- 

 tained the same results by using a compress soaked in broth; he considered the re- 

 sults in both instances due to stimulation and aggregation of monocytes at the skin 

 surface by the irritating substances. Ledingham^ has employed the blockade method, 

 using India ink intradermally, and he has ascertained that a superimposed vaccine 

 either inhibited or decreased antibody response. He explained his results on the theory 

 that the India ink caused the reticulo-endothelium to proliferate and thus enhanced 

 the defense processes at the point of inoculation. Wassermann and Citron' injected 

 typhoid vaccine intraperitoneally, intrapleurally, and intravenously into animals, 

 with the result that each method gave a better agglutinin for its own exudate. Their 



• Zilva, S. S.: Chem. Ahs., 13, 2920. 1919. 



^Werkman, C. H., Nelson, V. E., and Fulmer, E. I.: J. Infect. Dis., 34, 447. 1924. 



3 Cook, M. W., and Smith, G. H.: /. Immunol., 2, 415. 191 7. 



4 Rivers, T. M.: J. Exper. Med., 41, 179. 1925; Rivers, T. M., and Tillett, W. S.: ibid., p. 1S5. 



1925- 



5 Gay, F. P.: Arch. Path. &= Lab. Med., 1, 590. 1926. 



^Besredka, A.: Atm. deVInst. Pasteur, 38, 565. 1924. 



'Gay, F. P.: loc. cil. 



** Ledingham, J. C. G.: Brit. J. E.xper. Path., 8, 12. 1927. 



9 Wassermann, A., and Citron, J.: Ztschr.f. Ilyg. u.I^ifektionskrankJi., 50, 331. 1905. 



