TOXIC OR EXCITING INJECTION 39 



respiratory movements, dyspnceic at first, become 

 slower and slower, and finally become paralysed, and 

 at the end of an interval which varies from three to 

 seven minutes, the animal dies from asphyxia. The 

 internal mechanism of this asphyxia has not yet been 

 satisfactorily explained. At autopsies haemorrhagic 

 congestion has been found in the stomach, in the 

 intestine, in the lungs, and in the heart. No lesion 

 has been discovered, even microscopically, in the 

 region of the nerve centres. 



In the rabbit the clinical symptoms are almost 

 the same as in the guinea-pig; with this difference, 

 however, that the phase of excitation is often of much 

 shorter duration and the paralytic phase much longer. 

 Anaphylactic shock is particularly well marked when 

 reinjection is carried out intravenously. 



We have already described above (p. 7) the local 

 anaphylaxis which is observed so constantly in the 

 rabbit and so rarely in the guinea-pig, following 

 repeated subcutaneous injections of serum or of milk 

 (Arthus). 



As our co-worker Grineff^ has noted, the symptoms 

 of local anaphylaxis are the same when the rabbit is 

 injected subcutaneously with a solution of egg- 

 albumen instead of serum or milk. 



Anaphylaxis was first studied in the dog (Charles 

 Richet). When slight, the symptoms noted are pruri- 

 tus, acceleration of respiration and of the heart's action, 

 a lowering of arterial pressure, and diarrhoea. When 

 severe, the first symptom to appear — ^and the one 

 which is constant, and overshadows all others — is 

 vomiting. This is only absent in cases of anaphy- 

 laxis of peculiarly sudden and violent onset. Para- 

 lytic symptoms are then present. The dog staggers 

 as though intoxicated; and its hind quarters become 

 paralysed. The eyes assume a wild expression and 



^ Comptes rend. Soc. de Biol., Ixxii., p. 974, 1912. 



