ORIGIN OF CHRONIC NON-CONTAGIOUS DISEASES 161 



cope, 1 Walker, 2 Schloss, 3 Cooke 4 and many others have 

 brought out the fact that this hypersensitiveness depends 

 upon an inherited tendency, the nature of which is unknown, 

 that it can be demonstrated by applying some of the protein 

 to a scratch in the patient's skin and observing the urticarial 

 wheal which occurs locally within ten minutes and finally 

 that this hypersensitiveness and the clinical conditions 

 depending on it can be relieved by treatment either by 

 removal of the offending protein or vaccination with an 

 extract of it. In some of these cases the hypersensitiveness 

 is to bacteria or their products. 



The local reaction as well as the clinical conditions depend 

 upon an excess of antibodies in the cells which at once com- 

 bine with the foreign protein by virtue of their extraordinary 

 affinity for it and form a product which is insoluble and poi- 

 sonous for the cell and for the organism. Briefly, the method 

 of treatment in chronic diseases is " vaccino therapy" which 

 has been so successfully studied and applied by Al. Wright 

 in the treatment of certain acute infectious diseases; and it 

 is in this direction that experiments were undertaken. 



1 The Susceptibility of Man to Foreign Proteins, Am. Jour. Med. Sc., 

 1916, No. 5, clii, 625. 



2 Studies in Asthma, Jour. Med. Research, 1917. 



3 Allergy in Infants, Am. Jour. Dis. of Children, 1920, xix, 433. 



4 Human Sensitization, Jour. Immunology, 1916, i, 3. 



11 



