124 ANAPHYLAXIS AND ANTI-ANAPHYLAXIS 



infectious disease, Goodall^ concludes that though 

 anaphylaxis may explain " a very large number of 

 these rashes and their accompanying symptoms," yet 

 the most important incidents of an attack of acute 

 infectious disease still remain unexplained. 



The difficulties become still greater when we turn 

 to a chronic bacterial infection such as tuberculosis. 

 It was pointed out a good many years ago that 

 sensitisation to the B. tuberculosis closely resembled 

 anaphylaxis. Vaughan and his co-workers, who 

 have made elaborate and extensive experiments with 

 the split products of the tubercle bacillus, consider 

 that the sensitisation in this case is a true bacterial 

 anaphylaxis. A full resume of the work done on 

 this side of the question will be found in Vaughan's 

 collected work already quoted. On the other hand, 

 in Chapter VI. of the present work Besredka has 

 advanced cogent reasons for believing that the 

 tuberculous toxin is a thing apart, and in no way 

 connected with true anaphylaxis. 



It is impossible to close this brief resum^ of the 

 manifestations of anaphylaxis in man without refer- 

 ence to the condition of bronchial or spasmodic 

 asthma. As long ago as 1909, Auer and Lewis^ 

 shewed that the lung of an anaphylactic guinea-pig 

 presented changes resembling bronchial asthma, and 

 even previous to this it had been recognised clinically 

 that asthmatics were particularly sensitive to injec- 

 tions of horse serum. A. G. Auld' has recently 

 advanced the question a step further by the use of 

 hypodermic injections of peptone solutions in the 

 treatment of asthma, on the principle that this 

 disease is an auto-sensitisation, and that anti- 

 anaphylaxis may be induced by peptone inoculations ► 



^ Loc. cit. 



2 Journal of American Med. Assoc, liii., p. 458, 1909. 



3 Brit. Med. Journ., i., p. 580, 1917. 



