204 THE SEX-COMPLEX 



Foetal toxins In 1911 Dold 1 showed that saline extracts of many 

 eclampsia. viscera contain a toxin, lethal to animals, which is 

 completely neutralized by normal blood-serum. To 

 this toxin he gave the name of * organgift '. The 

 nature of the substance has not been satisfactorily 

 determined. 



Obata 2 , following the investigations of Dold, has 

 recently made an important contribution to the subject. 

 This investigator has found that when an extract of 

 fresh human placenta is injected into mice symptoms 

 resembling those of eclampsia are produced, and that 

 there is no difference between the effect produced by the 

 extract of placenta from a normal case and the extract 

 of the placenta from a case of eclampsia. Further, 

 Obata observed that fresh serum from the blood, either 

 of a normal person or of an eclamptic patient, produces 

 similar symptoms in mice; but no increase in the 

 toxicity was noted in regard to the serum of eclamptic 

 patients. When, however, the extract of a placenta is 

 mixed with the serum from a normal person and it 

 was found that sex and pregnancy did not effect the 

 issue the toxic effects of the placental extract, and 

 also apparently of the serum, were neutralized; but, 

 on the other hand, the serum from the blood of an 

 eclamptic patient failed to neutralize the toxin of the 

 placenta. 



It appears, therefore, that there is some substance in 

 normal blood that neutralizes the toxins of the placenta, 

 and it seems curious that this is present in the blood of 

 males as well as females, until we remember that the 

 foetus is the product of the male no less than of the 

 female. 



With these facts in mind, I was confronted with 

 the prospect of losing a patient who was suffering with 

 severe eclamptic convulsions and in labour. I delivered 

 her without difficulty of full-term still-born twins. I 



1 Dold, H., Zeitsch. f. Immunol u. Exper. Therap., 1911, vol. x, 

 p. 53. 



2 Obata, I., Journ. Immunol., 1919, vol. iv, p. 111. 



