CHAPTER VI. 



THE INFLUENCE OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS 



SYSTEM ON IMMUNIZING REACTIONS 



AND ON ANAPHYLAXIS. 



THE influence of the central nervous system on the pro- 

 cesses of immunity and anaphylaxis is not at the present 

 time understood, at least from the biochemical point of view. 

 It is indisputable that the cells of an organism, even the 

 leukocytes, have no individual independent life, concur in 

 all their functions to make a perfectly coordinated whole. 

 In other words, that the specific functions of each tissue, 

 organ, gland and cell are strictly dependent, not only on 

 the physicochemical affinities of the substances which com- 

 pose them, but also and especially on the action and condition 

 of the central and sympathetic nervous system, and on its 

 conscious and subconscious reactions. 



Syncopies, respiratory and gastro-intestinal disturbances 

 produced by emotions, whether spiritual or psychic, real or 

 suggested, which simulate so accurately the syndrome of 

 anaphylactic shock in total or in part, the chronic disturb- 

 ances of general nutrition produced by grief; the activation 

 of salivary or gastric secretion by the sight of certain foods 

 all prove that the nervous system can produce in the cells 

 all manner of reactions without the direct intervention of 

 any foreign product whatever. 



Moreover in a diarrhea caused by a violent emotion or 

 in an urticaria of hysterical origin it is certainly not the 

 direct action of the peripheral nerves which can in a few 

 moments liquefy the intestinal contents or produce edemas 

 in different areas of the skin. These reactions in the last 

 analysis can be the result only of physicochemical modifi- 

 cations which are produced in the interior of particular 



