HOST RESPONSE TO ANTIGENIC ACTION 457 



which the acid-precipitable and heat-coagulable proteins had been 

 removed. The reaction appeared to be species-specific but not 

 type-specific. A similar skin reaction to the protein of Pneumo- 

 coccus occurred in rabbits following the repeated intracutaneous 

 or intravenous administration of heat-killed organisms or their 

 protein derivatives. The reactive function, although evidently re- 

 lated to the presence of humoral species-specific antibodies, oc- 

 curred independently of resistance to infection. 



A phenomenon related to skin sensitivity was the increased re- 

 active power of the eye of rabbits immunized with heat-killed sus- 

 pensions of smooth and rough pneumococci separately, as de- 

 scribed by Julianelle. 691 Positive reactions could be elicited in im- 

 mune animals by the instillation of nucleoprotein, or of a solution 

 from which the acid-precipitable and heat-coagulable proteins had 

 been removed. No reaction followed the similar application of liv- 

 ing, rough cells or the protein-free, type-specific polysaccharide of 

 Pneumococcus. Rabbits receiving intravenous injections of the in- 

 tact cell or of the soluble derivatives of Pneumococcus failed to 

 develop eye-reactivity, but acquired the property as a result of ex- 

 perimental infection with Pneumococcus. From the collected ex- 

 perimental evidence, Julianelle 692 concluded that the injection of 

 heat-killed pneumococci into the skin created a special kind of 

 skin and eye sensitiveness unrelated to the presence of circulating 

 antibodies and not transferable from sensitive to normal rabbits. 



In 1932, Julianelle with Morris, 693 by means of cutaneous and 

 ophthalmic tests, disclosed another indication of a basic relation 

 between pneumococci and streptococci and, in addition, a differ- 

 ence between the specificity of the reaction of the eye and of the 

 skin of sensitized rabbits. Following repeated intracutaneous in- 

 jections of heat-killed smooth and rough forms of Pneumococcus, 

 rabbits acquired increased dermal sensitivity to both pneumococci 

 and streptococci, while the injection of heat-killed indifferent 

 streptococci produced skin sensitivity to both species of organ- 

 isms. Injections of pneumococci into the skin were followed in 



