yoS-rilOTEIS ASTKIESH 169 



The number of reputed positive results witli lipoids makes it im- 

 possible at this time to state dogmatically that lipoids may not pos- 

 sess antio-enic propcM-ties, but it must be taken into account that the 

 successful use of lipoids as antigens in complement fixation reactions 

 is not proof of their true antigenic nature, in view of our present lack 

 (,f knowledge of the actual nature of this reaction itself, i^ urther- 

 more we have the testimony of Fitzgerald and Leathes ^« that a 

 lipoidal material from liver, which was itself capable of serving as 

 antio-en in the Wassermann reaction, did not engender complement- 

 fixiiro- antibodies in rabbits immunized with this lipoid. Kitchie and 

 Mille"r==^ could find no antigenic activity in the lipoids of serum or 

 corpuscles. Also Kleinschmidt,^^ who accepts the antigenic nature 

 of nastin was unable to secure antibodies by immunizing rabbits 

 with nastin. Thiele =^^ calls attention to the fact that lipoids possess 

 no specificity, and therefore cannot give rise to antibodies. Neufeld 

 found that "rabbits immunized with lecithin developed no opsonins 

 for lecitliin emulsions. A suggestive observation is that of Pick and 

 Schwarz -* who found that the presence of lecithin increases the anti- 

 genic power of bacteria, which may help to explain the activity of 

 possible traces of proteins in lipoid preparations used as antigens. 



Many drugs cause a hypersensitization, and in this respect seem to 

 behave as antigens produciirg anaphylactic antibodies. It happens 

 that most of these chemicals are of such a nature as to permit of their 

 nnion with proteins, and it seems probable that such protein com- 

 pounds behave as foreign proteins to the animal in which they are 

 formed, for it has been found that guinea-pig seram treated with 

 iodin can render guinea-pigs sensitive to the same iodized serum.- 

 Hence, hypersensitiveness to iodin compounds would be a reaction to 

 iodized proteins,-" and not to the non-protein iodin compound: the 

 same applies to anaphylactic reactions observed with salvarsan, 

 atoxyl," and perhaps aspirin and antipyrin.=« Zieler, however, has 

 questioned the validity of many of the experiments on which these 

 views are based.^« It is possible that certain chemicals may react m 

 such a way with the tissue or blood proteins as to make them sensi- 

 tive to the animal's own complement, which then forms anaphyla- 



20 Univ. of Calif. Publ., 1912 (2) , 39. 



2iJoiir. Path, and Bact., 1013 (17), 429. 



22Berl. klin. Woch., 1910 (47), 57. 



23Zeit. Imnmnitat.. 1913 (IG), 160. 



24Biochem. Zeit.. 1909 (15). 4.53. 



25 Friedborger and Ito, Zeit. Immunitiit., 1912 (12), 241. 



2GAccordincr to Block (Zeit. exp. Path., 1911 (9). 509) iodoform uhosyncrasv 

 depends upon the CH. rather than on the iodin, and is a local cellular reaction 

 rather than a humoral reaction, the protoplasm havm- an moroased affinity for 

 methyl radicals. (See Weil. Zeit. Chemotherapie 1913 (1-412.) 

 _^ 27Moro and Stheeman, Miinch. med. Woch., 1909 (56), 1414. , „. , 



- 28Bruck, Berl. klin. Woch., 1910 (47), 1928; Klausner, Miinch. med. ^^ och., 

 1911 (5S), 138. 



29 Munch, med. Woch., 1912 (59), 401. 



