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Physiology. — "On the formation of antibodies after injection oj 

 .sensitized antigens T By Tj. K. Wolff. (Communicated by 

 Prof. C. EiJKMAN.) (First Communication). 



In 1902 Besredka ^) communicated about a new way of rendering- 

 trial animals immune against pest, cholera, and typhus. This way 

 of immunizing consisted in injecting the animals with the bacilli in 

 question (either dead or alive), the latter being first treated with an 

 antiserum specially prepared for them, and afterwards being again 

 freed from the superfluous serum. 



It appeared that by this treatment the animals became immune 

 much sooner than after being injected witli nontreated bacilli, that 

 their state of immunity lasted as long, and besides that by this 

 treatment the bacilli had lost their toxical qualities. Since then 

 Besredka's method has been applied to a great many other bacteria, 

 and according to many authoi-s.. mostly with good results. 



In a report about his method^) in 1910 Bksredka finishes, saying 

 that it has been shown that sensitizing procures the bacteria with 

 new qualities, so that now they become first class vaccins, vaccins 

 with a reliable, quick, innocuous, and lasting effect. 



In defiance of this seem to be experiments by Neisser and 

 LuBowsKi ^), VON Düngern *) and Sachs '") "). 



Neisser and Lubowski examined upon rabbits the pi-oduction of 

 agglutinins against typhusbacilli, which were loaded with agglutinins 

 on one side, and by injection of nontreated bacilli on the other side. 

 They found that the former had much less effect than the latter. 



It must be remarked that their treated bacilli were saturated to 

 a maximum ^vith agglutinins and were then washed out again 

 several times '). 



1) C. R. de 1' Académie des Sciences, 2 June 1902. 



2) Bulletin de flnstitut Pasteur, 1910, p. 241. 



3) Centr. f. Bakteriologie I, vol. 30, p. 4&3. 

 4; Munch, Med. Woch. Schr. 1900, No. 20. 

 5) Genlr. f. Bakteriologie I, vol. 30, p. 491. 



^) I do not here wish to speak about immunizing by means of foxin-antitoxin 

 mixtures, which have again been brought to the fore by the latest investigations 

 of VON Behrikg as to the way of fighting diptheria. For this consult Kretz 

 (Zeitschr. f. Heilkunde 1901, Heft 4) and J.Rehns (G.R. de la Soc. de Biol. 1901, 

 février), who could not bring about immunisalion by compensated mixtures, con- 

 trary to Babes, who could, and further von Behring's communications (D. Med. 

 Woch. 1913), who found that a mixture reacting neutrally for one kind of animal, 

 could shll be toxical for another. 



') J. Rehns (G. R. de la Soc. de Biol. 1900, p. 1058) did not find a difference 

 in innnunisation power between agglutinated and nontreated bacilli. 



