406 PROTEIN POISONS 



changes in the chemical constitution of the protein mole- 

 cules of the cell, and by this means the cell acquires a new 

 function, which subsequently is brought into operation 

 only by contact with that protein to which its existence is 

 due. As a result of this rearrangement in molecular struc- 

 ture, the cell stores up a specific zymogen which is activated 

 by contact with its specific protein. This explanation of 

 the phenomena of sensitization originated in this laboratory, 1 

 and was not simply a fortunate guess, as has been assumed 

 by some. The same is true of the statement made at the 

 same time, that protein sensitization and bactericidal 

 immunity are identical, and not antipodal, as they may 

 appear to the superficial observer. A close study of the 

 split products of bacterial, vegetable, and animal proteins, 

 and especially of the poisonous group found in all proteins, 

 had already been made in this laboratory. A study of the 

 symptoms induced by the protein poison and of those 

 following a second administration to the sensitized animal 

 was certainly good and sufficient ground for concluding, as 

 then stated, that the man that dies from the administra- 

 tion of morphine and the one that dies from opium both 

 owe their death to the same poison. The most valuable 

 experiments of Friedberger and his assistants, and of 

 Pfeiffer and Mita, have, in our opinion, fairly established 

 the validity of this explanation. 2 



Whether the products of digestion with the non-specific 

 ferments and those elaborated by the specific enzymes are 

 identical or not remains to be ascertained. The presence 

 of a poisonous group in the protein molecule is disclosed in 

 both enteral and parenteral digestion, as well as by our 

 process of splitting up the protein with dilute alkali in 

 absolute alcohol. In the first case it appears in the peptone 



1 Jour, of Infect. Dis., June, 1907. 



2 In 1910 Friedberger (Berl. klin. Woch., Nos. 32 and 42) made very 

 plain the relation between sensitization and the infectious diseases, and 

 in his address at the meeting of the German naturalists at Konigsberg in 

 September, 1910 (Munch, med. Woch., 1910, Nos. 50 and 51), he dwelt 

 most instructively upon the wide application of the facts learned in his 

 studies of sensitization. 



