LEUCOCYTOSIS AND OPSONIC CONTENT OF SERUM 29 



The fluctuations in the opsonic content during the experiment were 

 quite trivial. 



In similar experiments, not here charted, we never succeeded in 

 obtaining a marked hyperleucocytosis immediately after intravenous 

 injection as Ruzicka did. In fact, the hyperleucocytosis appears to be a 

 late phenomenon. 



In the foregoing experiments, chemical substances of more or less 

 simple chemical constitution have been employed, to produce artificial 

 leucocytosis. We have seen that in the presence of marked hyper- 

 leucocytosis there has been no corresponding rise in the opsonic content. 



6. — Nuclein. 



We have already referred to the employment of nuclein by Issaeff 

 {loc. cit.) in experimental cholera infection. Similar results were obtained 

 by Miyake {^) working in Mikulicz's laboratory, on experimental coli 

 infection in guinea-pigs. By preliminary intraperitoneal inoculation of 

 nuclein, he was able to increase enormously the resistance of the 

 peritoneum towards a subsequent injection of virulent coli, made during 

 the period of hyperleucocytosis. The same principle was adopted by 

 Mikulicz in surgical cases in man, involving laparotomy, and it was 

 found that previous injection of nuclein acted as a good safeguard 

 against a possible subsequent infection. He stated that a hyper- 

 leucocytosis in the circulating blood regularly followed the injection of 

 nuclein in man. The stage of hyperleucocytosis was usually preceded in 

 animals by a period of hypoleucocytosis occurring during the first two 

 hours after inoculation. 



Recently, Huggard and Morland {^'^) have tried the effect of yeast 

 administration on the opsonic index in tuberculous patients. The dose 

 was usually 10 grm. of ordinary German yeast, and was administered for 

 at least a month in each case. In a series of 25 unselected cases, they 

 found a mean rise in the opsonic index of "15 after a mean course of 

 41 days' treatment. 



Two days after the administration of a single dose there was a slight 

 fall in the opsonic index, followed after four or five days by a rise. The 

 opsonic variations recorded by these authors are, however, very slight, 

 and might well come within the experimental error. Thus, after a dose 



(349) 



