232 PROTEIN POISONS 



sensitizes animals to the blood serum. The exhaled breath 

 of men condensed and injected into guinea-pigs sensitizes 

 these animals to subsequent injections of man's serum. Of 

 99 guinea-pigs submitted to this test, 26 manifested recog- 

 nizable symptoms of anaphylactic shock, and 4 of these 

 died on injection of human serum. "The fact that a number 

 of our experiments resulted negatively may mean either 

 that the organic matter is present in the expired air in 

 exceedingly small amounts, or that the guinea-pigs with 

 which we worked did not come from a very sensitive race. 

 There are indications in our work which suggest that the 

 expired breath from certain persons contains more organic 

 matter than from other persons; also that the amount 

 varies with conditions. We obtained a greater percentage 

 of reactions in the guinea-pigs injected with the liquid 

 condensed from the expired breath of females than in those 

 injected with the liquid condensed from the expired breath 

 of males. Whether this is a mere coincidence or not may 

 be determined only by collecting more extensive data. 



"The logical conclusion from our results is that protein 

 substances under- certain circumstances may be volatile. 

 It seems unlikely that such a complex molecule should 

 possess the power of passing into the air in a gaseous form. 

 The volatility, however, now in question, may resemble 

 that solubility which deals with particles in suspension in 

 a physicochemical state (colloidal suspension). The protein 

 may simply be carried over in 'solution' in the water vapor. 



"A comparatively large number of the guinea-pigs 

 inoculated subcutaneously with the condensed liquid from 

 the expired breath developed sloughs at the site of the 

 injection. It is not certain whether this was due to the 

 pressure of the relatively large amount of liquid injected, 

 or to some irritating principle contained in the liquid. 

 Occasionally the local effects may have been due to the 

 fact that the liquid was cold when injected. The injection 

 of the condensed liquid caused no other untoward symp- 

 toms upon the animals, which is quite contrary to the 

 observation on rabbits of Brown-Sequard and others." 



