118 THERAPEUTIC MEASURES 



therapy and even under serum therapy whose discovery has 

 arisen in different ways and in which researches have devel- 

 oped parallel to the others, but without touching, are all 

 provoked by reactions of the same nature. 



In fact, the products which provoke skepto- or tachy- 

 phylaxis are no other than the anaphylatoxins so that skepto- 

 phylaxis is synonymous with anti-anaphylatoxic vaccination. 

 An anaphylactic crisis is produced by reactions identical to 

 those produced by anaphylatoxin and in these two phe- 

 nomena there is this single difference that in the first, the 

 organism furnishes the reactive substance (antibody in 

 excess) while in the second, the antigen furnishes it. A 

 series of injections of a disodic arsenobenzene will render the 

 organism anaphylactic to a later or second injection of the 

 same product. The serum of the treated organism will 

 become more precipitating than normal serum: Mono- 

 sodium arsenbenzene is an anaphylatoxin because this 

 product on injection is more easily precipitable than the 

 disodic compound. 



Finally latent anaphylactic crisis is made to abort exactly 

 by the same method as an outspoken anaphylactic crisis is 

 cured. The confusion of facts is caused only by a lack of 

 understanding of the background on which each develops 

 and to coordinate these it is only necessary to find in the 

 experimental material at hand suggestions useful for thera- 

 peutics. 



CHEMOTHERAPY. 



Chemotherapy may well profit by all the experiments dis- 

 cussed above. We know (Dalimier) that the injection of a 

 small dose of a disodic arsenobenzene can protect the organ- 

 ism from the pathologic effects of a larger dose and that the 

 pathologic state already existing and caused by a large dose 

 may lead to recovery or rapid improvement by a mechanism 

 identical to that of bacteriotherapy. It would be interesting 

 to see whether it were possible to cure and especially to 

 prevent anaphylactic or anaphylatoxic accidents caused by 

 arsenobenzenes by using other antigens for example, pep- 

 tone, sera, or bacterial bodies. If this were possible, it would 



