IMMUNITY. 313 



tures of the glanders bacillus. These proteids 

 confer no specific immunity and no specific toler- 

 ance of poison ; they are neither the specific 

 protective substances nor the specific poisons of 

 the bacteria. According to Koch it is possible 

 to accustom the body to the presence of large 

 quantities of these proteids. They bring about 

 a reaction of the body cells and tissues by excit- 

 ing an inflammation which enables the organ- 

 ism to defend itself from the invading parasites. 

 In rare cases a cure of tuberculosis can perhaps 

 be effected by tuberculin, but, as is well known, 

 the expectation of a " specific " cure has not 

 been fulfilled. The inflammatory reaction, with 

 the resulting increase of temperature which 

 follows the injection of tuberculous animals 

 with tuberculin may reveal the existence of an 

 internal seat of disease. This method of using 

 tuberculin has been widely introduced for the 

 diagnosis of the disease of cattle known as 

 " pearly disease," and mallein likewise is fre- 

 quently used with success to obtain an early 

 diagnosis of glanders. It must however be men- 

 tioned that sometimes the reaction is not forth- 

 coming, and other processes often intervene for 

 the simple reason that the proteids are not spe- 

 cific in the ordinary sense of the word. Indeed, 

 according to Weichselbaum, Ortner and Klein, 

 tuberculin has no effect at all upon uncompli- 



