HOST RESPONSE TO ANTIGENIC ACTION 469 



the left flank an injection of a suspension of washed pneumococci 

 followed immediately by a similar injection of milk protein on the 

 right flank. Forty-eight hours later they were given on the left side 

 at some distance from the first puncture an injection of the same 

 organism heated for thirty minutes at 60° and again milk protein 

 into the skin on the right flank. The second group of guinea pigs 

 were treated in the same manner but without the injection of milk 

 protein. Examination of the animals of the second group revealed 

 an area of induration and inflammation at the site of the injection 

 of pneumococci, whereas the animals that had received milk pro- 

 tein in addition to the pneumococcal suspension showed only the 

 slightest response to the bacterial antigen and none to milk pro- 

 tein. When intramuscular injections of milk protein were substi- 

 tuted for intradermal administration, with all other conditions of 

 the experiment the same as before, the reactions of the animals so 

 treated were less pronounced than those in the guinea pigs receiv- 

 ing only pneumococci, but more marked than those occurring when 

 the protein was injected into the skin. While it is apparent that 

 the injection of foreign protein inhibited the reactivity of the cu- 

 taneous tissues to the injected suspension of heated pneumococci, 

 the significance of the experiments is not clear. 



Kramar and Gyiire (1930) T56 sought other means for learning 

 the manner in which the allergic manifestations of the skin take 

 place. A comparison was made of the bactericidal, bacteriotropic, 

 protective, and antitoxic action of the serum, plasma, and defibri- 

 nated blood of human beings who reacted either positively or nega- 

 tively to an autolysate of Type II Pneumococcus. From the 

 experiments there appeared to be no correlation between the con- 

 tent of humoral antibodies and the outcome of the skin tests. The 

 authors then studied the relation of the skin reactions in man 

 evoked by pneumococcal autolysate with the so-called "pharmaco- 

 dynamic reaction" of Hecht and von Groer, which consisted in de- 

 termining the maximal dose of epinephrin and caffein-sodium sali- 

 cylate which, when injected alone into the skin, would produce 



