DEFINITION 571 



any one to a theory based upon bacteriologic, pathologic, or biologic 

 findings. 



Theobald Smith Phenomenon. While von Pirquet was making 

 these studies, great impetus was given the experimental study of ana- 

 phylaxis by the observation of Theobald Smith, who found that guinea- 

 pigs that were used for standardizing the strength of diphtheria anti- 

 toxin after a second injection of serum frequently presented symptoms 

 of a serious character, such as great restlessness, dyspnea, itching of the 

 skin, and violent convulsive seizures. In fully 50 per cent of the animals 

 death occurred within half an hour. 



Simultaneously Rosenau and Anderson 1 in this country and Otto 2 

 in Germany undertook the study of this phenomenon. The first-named 

 investigators showed most conclusively, by a thorough series of experi- 

 ments, the action of horse serum and other substances in guinea-pigs, 

 and proved that serum sickness was due to some constituent of the 

 serum independent of the antitoxic antibodies, as normal horse serum 

 yielded exactly similar results. 



Among the earlier studies of anaphylaxis of importance were those 

 of Weichardt. 3 These were made with extracts of placental cells, and 

 later with the proteins of pollen, in relation to hay-fever. Wolff-Eisner 4 

 wrote a treatise that had as its fundamental idea the belief that hyper- 

 sensibility was due to endotoxins liberated by a lysin formed as a result 

 of the first injection. Also among the earliest and most valuable studies 

 upon the nature of anaphylaxis, and showing the important relation of 

 proteins to the process, are those of Vaughan 5 and his coworkers; indeed 

 the studies of Smith, Rosenau and Anderson, Vaughan and Wheeler, 

 Gay and Southard, Auer and Lewis, and others have gained for America 

 a prominent part in the development of this important subject. 



Definition. By anaphylaxis, in the limited meaning of the term, as, 

 e. g., in that following the injection of horse serum in man or following 

 the experimental administration of practically any protein in the lower 

 animals, is understood the following train of phenomena. When a 

 foreign protein is introduced into the animal body, usually parenterally, 



1 Bull. 29, Hyg. Lab., U. S. P. H. and M. H. S., 1906; Bull. 36, Hyg. Lab., April, 

 1907; Jour. Infect. Dis., 1907, iv, 552; Bull. 45, Hyg. Lab., June, 1908; Bull. 50, 

 Hyg. Lab., 1909; Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., 1906, xlvii, 1007; Archiv. Int. Med., 

 1909, iii, 519. 



2 von Leuthold Gedenkschrift, 1905, i; Munch, med. Wochenschr., 1907, liv, 

 1665; Kolle and Wassermann, 1908, ii, 255. 



3 Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 1903, No. 1. 



4 Zeitschr. f. Bakteriol., 1904; Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 1904, xli, 1105, 1131, 

 1156, 1273; Munch, med. Wochenschr., 1906, liii, 217. 



5 Summarized in "Protein Split Products," Lea and Febiger, 1913. 



