60 ANAPHYLAXIS AND ANTI-ANAPHYLAXIS 



succumb to the test injection, as do sensitised and 

 non-ansesthetised controls. 



In order to lower the sensibility of guinea-pigs, 

 we have tried, besides anaesthetics, many toxic 

 products. Thus, we have injected into sensitised 

 guinea-pigs, the day before the test, a dose of atoxyl 

 slightly less than the lethal dose. The experiment 

 has shown that the guinea-pigs whose sensibiht}'' has 

 been thus deadened afterwards remain resistant to 

 a definitely lethal dose of serum. This has hkewise 

 been the case with sensitised guinea-pigs weakened 

 by prolonged starvation, as Lesne and Dreyfus^ and 

 our collaborator Konstansoff have observed.* 



By producing, with the aid of narcotics or chemical 

 reagents, a transient refractory condition which pro- 

 tects the animal from anaphylactic shock, we can 

 thus obtain, for an extended period and by a totally 

 different means, a true immunity. Here we are 

 required to handle a problem which is as important 

 from the practical point of view and as pregnant 

 with possibilities as is anti-anaphylaxis. 



It was in this way, indeed, that the phenomenon 

 was interpreted by observers who had first applied 

 themselves to serum anaphylaxis in the guinea-pig: 

 by Rosenau, Anderson, and Otto, on the one hand, 

 and our collaborator Steinhardt on the other. This 

 was so much the view of Rosenau and Anderson that 

 these authors began by attacking the so-called serum 

 toxin by means of the most varied chemical reagents. 

 When they saw that they did not succeed, they then 

 proceeded to vaccinate against this toxin, and in 

 order to do this they went to work exactly as if they 

 had to vaccinate the guinea-pig against a genuine 

 toxin. They submitted their animals to a series of 

 injections, each injection being separated from the 



1 Comptes rend. Soc. de Biol., Ixxi., p. 153, 191 1. 

 ^ Ihid., Ixxii., p. 263, 1912. 



