140 ABBOTT AND BERGEY — ALCOHOLIC INTOXICATION. [Aprils, 



spectra of gases which give, therefore, bright lines on the negative; 

 that is, they do not change the silver salt. This discovery, I think, 

 is of great importance, for it shows that there are rates of vibration 

 to which the photographic plate does not respond. It is imperfect 

 in science as well as in art, and does not give a complete history of 

 the stars, the temperatures of which are probably much higher even 

 than those which I have reached. These dark lines are not due to 

 what is called solarization or to absorption. The solar spectrum is 

 thus probably far more complex even than we have supposed. This 

 new field of what may be called destructive dissociation of gases in 

 which I am working, promises to lead to many important results in 

 the new science of electrochemistry. 



[Prof. Trowbridge projected some lantern slides of the spectra 

 of gases obtained with the discharges from the large storage battery, 

 which showed the universal spectrum of water vapor and the re- 

 markable dark lines of which he had spoken. — The Secretaries.] 



THE INFLUENCE OF ALCOHOLIC INTOXICATION UPON 

 CERTAIN FACTORS CONCERNED IN THE PHENOM- 

 ENA OF HEMOLYSIS AND BACTERIOLYSIS. 



A PRELIMINARY NOTE. 



BY A. C. ABBOTT AND D. H. BERGEY. 



(from the laboratory of HYGIENK, university of PENNSYLVANIA.) 



(^Read April 5, 1902.) 



In 1896 one of us (A. C. A.) published the results of an investi- 

 gation upon the influence of alcoholic intoxication on resistance to 

 infection.^ In that paper attention was directed to the fact that 

 the susceptibility of rabbits to certain types of infection was 

 markedly increased through the influence of prolonged alcoholic 

 intoxication. These results have been fully confirn^ed by others.'^ 



At the time the results were published no fully satisfactory expla- 

 nation of the mechanism of this phenomenon was available, though 

 several suggestions were offered, viz., the reduced resistance may 

 be referable to the local action of the alcohol upon the gastric mu- 



1 See Journal of Exp. Med., 1896, Vol. i. 



2 See Laitinen, Acta Societatis Scientiarwn Fennicce, Tom. xxix, No, 7> 

 I900; also Zeit. f. Hyg. u. Infeklionskrankheiten, 1900, Band 34, S. 206. 



