230 WAKFIELD T. LONGCOPE AND GEOEGE M. MACKENZIE 



seems probable that its diminution in asthma results from lessened tissue 

 oxidation. 



As regards the effect of extraneous disturbances in precipitating symp- 

 toms in these individuals, it is necessary to refer again to the work of 

 Auer who showed that in the rabbit, sensitized to horse serum and later 

 reinjected with horse serum, a marked local inflammatory reaction oc- 

 curred at a point of chemical injury such as that produced in the ear 

 by zylol. He explains this reaction by assuming that antigen reaches the 

 injured ear, escapes into the tissue and for this reason produces a local 

 reaction which would, without the previous chemical inflammation, be 

 impossible. This work is most suggestive, inasmuch as it furnishes some 

 experimental basis for suspecting that local non-specific injury to such 

 tissues as the skin and mucous membranes in hypersensitive individuals 

 may in the presence of specific antigen bring about a condition which allows 

 a violent reaction to take place. 



Protein Intoxication A closely related phase of this entire subject, 

 namely, the effect produced in the animal and in man by the absorption 

 or the injection of protein split products that are in themselves highly 

 toxic, has already been referred to in the discussion relating to the etiology 

 of anaphylaxis. The toxicity of these products of protein disintegration 

 has been known for many years, for, as long ago as 1880, Schmidt-Mul- 

 heim and Fano pointed out that the intravenous injection of proteose- 

 peptone into animals caused profound disturbances of shock-like character. 

 For many years following these observations, the toxic action of such sub- 

 stances was studied and described, but the subject assumed a position of 

 new importance when Biedl and Kraus called attention to the striking 

 resemblance to anaphylactic shock of symptoms produced in dogs by the 

 injection of peptone solution. Since then, poisonous substances have been 

 obtained by a great variety of methods from protein and it has been shown 

 that these substances or changed proteins are toxic for animals and when 

 injected result in symptoms that are in general similar and in many ani- 

 mals resemble anaphylactic shock. Much impetus was given to such 

 studies by the investigations of Vaughan upon the protein poisons ob- 

 tained from bacteria. The hypothesis that toxic split proteins were re- 

 sponsible for anaphylactic shock was supported by Friedberger, who 

 described the production of a toxic substance by the action in vitro of 

 antigen, antibody and complement, which he termed anaphylatoxin. Still 

 another phase of this subject is represented by the work of Jobling and 

 Peterson, who, by extracting the lipoid from blood serum or by treating 

 blood serum with potassium iodid, demonstrated that it became toxic. In 

 their opinion and in that of Bronfenbrenner this process removes all anti- 

 enzymes and allows of the cleavage of the proteins of the serum by its own 

 proteolytic ferments. That blood serum may develop somewhat the same 



