GENERAL PHENOMENA OF IMMUNITY 35 



By continuous daily bleedings Hahn and Langer recently succeeded 

 in increasing the agglutinin content 250,000 times its original value. 

 Similarly Madsen and Tallquist have shown that certain poisons 

 which destroy erythrocytes may increase the production of anti- 

 bodies possibly by the action of the same mechanism as that whereby 

 hemorrhage stimulates antibody formation. Rusk has found that 

 animals intoxicated with benzol produce hemolysins and precipitins 

 much less efficiently than normal animals. Since benzol affects 

 particularly the bone marrow and the lymphatic apparatus, this 

 evidence points in favor of the view that these tissues are largely 

 involved in the production of hemolysins and of precipitins. 



According to Hektoen and Curtis, adrenalectomy in normal dogs 

 and in dogs at the height of the antibody curve after the injection 

 of rat corpuscles does not cause a decrease in the antibody content 

 of the blood serum. Gates was able to remove approximately three- 

 quarters to seven-eighths of the adrenal tissue of guinea-pigs with- 

 out causing symptoms of adrenal insufficiency. Guinea-pigs thus 

 treated were injected with bacillus typhosus and with hen cor- 

 puscles, and the results demonstrated that adrenalectomy had no 

 influence upon the rise or persistence of antibodies in the blood, 

 and therefore the adrenals appear to play no essential part in the 

 mechanism of antibody production. 



The results of Tjeldstad had shown that thyroidectomy failed to 

 influence antibody production. Similar observations were recorded 

 by Hektoen and Curtis, and others, but Frouin was more conserva- 

 tive in his conclusions, and Garibaldi has recently renewed an in- 

 terest in this matter by reporting that the hemolytic titer of the 

 serum of thyroidectomized rabbits is much higher than that of his 

 control animals, therefore concluding that thyroidectomy definitely 

 favors antibody production. 



We know from the experiments of Wassermann and Takaki that 

 brain substance neutralizes tetanus toxin, but this fact does not 

 indicate this organ to be of much importance in the production of 

 antibodies. In fact, we have learned from the experiments of Loewi 

 and Meyer that injection of toxin into the nervous system produces an 

 increased susceptibility of the animal rather than increase of resistance. 



Production of Antibodies at Site of Injection. Certain experi- 

 ments indicate that antibodies may also be produced at the place of 

 introduction of the antigen. Romer and also von Dungern have 

 shown that immunization by way of the conjunctiva or anterior 

 chamber of the eye results in the formation of antibodies in the 

 aqueous humor before they can be demonstrated in the blood. These 

 experiments also demonstrated that the opposite eye produces no 

 antibody. Wassermann and Citron ligated a rabbit's ear at its base 

 after a subcutaneous injection of bacteria. The ligation was left 

 for several hours, and after nine days the bactericidal titer of the 

 blood serum determined and the ear amputated. An immediate and 

 rapid drop of antibody in the blood which occurred after the ampu- 



