80 ANAPHYLAXIS AND ANTI-ANAPHYLAXIS 



use of extracts of organs completely deprived of 

 blood. He introduced a cannula into the portal 

 vein of a living rabbit, and carefully washed the 

 organs with physiological saline solution until the 

 fluid discharged from the carotid was no longer 

 coloured. Then he ground up the organs into fine 

 particles^ — liver, spleen, kidney — macerated them in 

 physiological saline solution, and the next day injected 

 the extracts, thus prepared, subcutaneously into 

 guinea-pigs. 



When, three weeks later, Ohkubo put these animals 

 to the test, he discovered that they did not react to 

 the injection of the macerated organs. Therefore, 

 the conclusion drawn from the previous experiments 

 of Ranzi — namely, that of specific anaphylaxis in the 

 presence of tissue extracts — was found to be erroneous. 



Minet and Bruyant,^ Calmette's collaborators, have 

 in their turn endeavoured to ehminate the cause of 

 error due to the presence of blood in the organs. 

 Instead of driving the blood from the organs by 

 means of lavage, they freed them from it by biological 

 means, vaccinating the animals against the serum 

 by the procedure of administering small doses. If 

 in spite of this anti-anaphylactic vaccination, the 

 guinea-pigs, having been sensitised with the extract 

 of organs, reacted upon reinjection of the same 

 extracts, it would be proved that anaphylaxis to 

 organs was an undoubted fact, the anaphylaxis to 

 serum having been eliminated. 



The experiments thus conducted induced Minet 

 and Bruyant to conclude, in agreement with the 

 opinion of Ranzi, and contrary to that advanced by 

 Ohkubo, that anaphylaxis to tissue extracts does 

 exist, and that it is independent of that attributable 

 to serum contained in the organs. 



Crystallin occupies a place by itself from the point 

 * Comptes rend. Soc. de Biol., Ixxi., p. i66, 191 1. 



