36 ANAPHYLAXIS AND ANTI-ANAPHYLAXIS 



We may add that cow's milk does not exhibit any 

 toxicity in the case of guinea-pigs that have been 

 sensitised with cow's serum. 



Toxicity of Egg- Albumen} — In order to demonstrate 

 this, two routes were open to us — the intravenous 

 and the intracerebral. In both instances it was 

 sufficient to make the test injection with a minimal 

 dose of egg-albumen in order immediately to set up 

 the anaphylactic syndrome similar in every respect 

 to serum or lactic anaphylaxis. 



Grave anaphylactic symptoms are rarely observed 

 when the injection is made intraperitoneally, and we 

 have never seen them produced by subcutaneous 

 injection. 



These reactions following the second injection 

 differ according to the method of inoculation of the 

 egg-albumen, and evidently depend upon the con- 

 sistency of this substance, and consequently upon its 

 more or less rapid absorption. Thus, the absorption 

 is very rapid when the injection is made into the 

 general circulation. It will be understood that it is 

 slightly less rapid when the egg-albumen is injected 

 subdurally. The absorption takes a distinctly longer 

 time in the peritoneal cavity, and even longer still in 

 the case of subcutaneous injection: hence the same 

 egg-albumen decreases proportionately in toxicity 

 according as the injection is made intravenously, 

 subdurally, intraperitoneally, or subcutaneously. 



In order to give an idea of the toxicit}'^ of egg- 

 albumen in the sensitised guinea-pig when the in- 

 jection is made intravenously, we may say that a dose 

 of 0-002 c.c, and sometimes of o-ooi c.c, is at once 

 fatal, whilst in the normal guinea-pig the injection of 

 1 or 2 c.c. of pure egg-albumen (that is, a dose 500 

 or 1,000 times greater) does not give rise to the 

 shghtest trouble. 



1 Annales de I'Institut Pasteur, xxv., p. 392, 1911. 



