EXPERIMENTAL LEUCOCYTOSIS 77 



of pilocarpin, musearin and barium chloride. This was of purely 

 mechanical origin, due to contraction of plain muscle in the spleen 

 and lymphatic glands, as it may be inhibited if atropine precedes 

 the incorporation of any drug which stimulates plain muscle. 



Von Limbeck injected cultures of bacteria into the knee joints 

 of fasting dogs and found the maximum leucocytosis was reached 

 6-24 hours after the injection, with ordinarily two to three times 

 the normal number of leucocytes of which 88-93% were poly- 

 morphs. Pyogenic staphylococci were the most active, increas- 

 ing the leucocytes to 6-7 times the normal number. Strepto- 

 coccus pyogenes was next and Friedlander's pneumococcus third 

 in activity. Rieder repeated v. Limbeck's experiments on dogs 

 and rabbits and found an increase in leucocytes preceded by a 

 temporary decrease. In some cases the injection was followed by 

 leucopenia and the death of the animal. Bacterial proteins pro- 

 duced a decrease one to two hours after injection followed by an 

 increase, or occasionally persistent leucopenia. A number of 

 experiments has shown that nearly all of the pathogenic bacteria 

 induce leucocytosis. The duration of the stage of leucopenia and 

 the grade of leucocytosis vary with the different bacteria, the 

 virulence of the cultures used and the resistance of the animal. 



Some of the substances that have been found by various inves- 

 tigators to produce leucocytosis are: sodium chloride solution, 

 salts of mercury and of antimony, arsenic trisulphate, dilute acids 

 and alkalis, silver nitrate, cupric sulphate, potassium iodide, 

 sodium salicylate, salicylic acid, acetic ether, ether, chloroform, 

 camphor, turpentine, oil of peppermint, oil of mustard, croton oil, 

 oil of anise, oil of fennel, oil of cinnamon, sodium cinnamate, tinc- 

 ture of myrrh, extract of gentian, absinthe, digitalis, quinine, 

 pilocarpin, morphine, salicin, piperin, strychnine, sodium urate, 

 uric acid, urea, sapotoxin, digotoxin, curare, antifebrin, anti- 

 pyrin, phenacitin, nuclcin, nucleinic acid, albumose, peptone, pep- 

 sin, sodium albuminate, egg albumin, hemoglobin, lecithin, spermin, 

 fibrin ferment, extracts of spleen, thymus and bone marrow, leech 

 extract, ground wheat, gluten casein, peameal, filtered yeast cul- 

 tures, pyocyanin, tuberculin, mallein and antitetanic serum. With 

 some of these other investigators have obtained negative results. 

 A practical application to be made of therapeutic leucocytosis 

 is that when examining the blood during the administration of 



