174 Dr. Wright and Capt. Douglas. Action on [July 26, 



In addition to furnishing indications of successful advance in the 

 direction of immunisation, the measurement of the agglutinating 

 power of the patient's blood may afford also indications of regress in 

 the direction of increased susceptibility resulting from an overtaxing 

 of the machinery of immunisation. 



In exemplification of this we may quote three passages from the 

 history of a patient (E. S. Tables II and III) with tubercular infection 

 of the kidney and bladder, whose agglutination curve was followed for 

 nearly 18 months. 



The patient in question, who had in association with the inoculations 

 set forth in Table II put on 5 Ibs. in weight, received on April 30, 

 the date on which the record in Table II closes, 0'025 milligramme 

 on May 5, 0*05 milligramme, and on May 13, 0'2 milligramme of 

 T.K. tuberculin. 



In association with the first two of these inoculations, the agglutina- 

 tion curve sank away rapidly from 64 to 8, the patient losing at the 

 same time 3J Ibs. in weight, and suffering from considerable constitu- 

 tional disturbance. 



In association with the third of these inoculations the agglutinins 

 disappeared entirely from the blood. 



On a later occasion in the beginning of November, 1903; when the 

 general condition of the patient had very markedly improved and when 

 her body weight had increased by 23 Ibs., a similar negative phase effect 

 accompanied by constitutional disturbance was obtained in association 

 with the inoculation of three 1 milligramme doses of the T.E. tuberculin 

 on November 2, 6, and 11 respectively. Here the complete agglutina- 

 tion, which was on the first of these dates obtained in a 32-fold 

 dilution of the serum, was obtained after the inoculations only in an 

 8-fold dilution. 



Again, in the beginning of December when another attempt was 

 made to press the inoculations, the agglutination curve, which had 

 risen again to 32 after the inoculations referred to in the preceding 

 paragraph, declined in consequence of two 1 milligramme inoculations, 

 first to 8 and then to 2, and the patient's symptoms were aggravated. 



A similar decline of the agglutination curve has come under 

 bservation also in other cases in association with the premature 

 increase of the dose of vaccine, and with the shortening of the interval 

 between successive inoculations. 



Data furnished by the measurement of the Opsonic Power of the Blood 



in the case of Patients undergoing Anti-tubercle Inoculations. 



Much more valuable than the indications which can be gleaned from 



ie measurement of the agglutinating power of the blood are the 



atioiis furnished by a measurement of the opsonic power of the 



While the measurement of the agglutinating power 



