KNOWLI.DGi:. 



August, 1912. 



proliably to U- cx|)l:>int;d in a similar way, and cases 

 arc described wliicli show that a substance may be 

 propliylactic against a particular disease, and yet 

 anai)bvlactic against itself, so that anaphylaxis and 

 immunity may be developed simultaneously. It is 

 comforting to learn that physiologists have already 

 devised an "anti-anapiiyiaclir" method of procedure. 



It has been shown tliat, w bile no crystallisable sub- 

 stance can produce nna|)liyiaxis, almost any " colloid" 

 or albuminoid substance (which is unable or hardly 

 able to diffuse through organic membranes) may do 

 so under certain conditions. Among these condi- 

 tions are, that a certain time — an incubation period — 

 must elapse between the doses, and that the sub- 

 stance, serum, egg, milk, muscle-extract, vegetable 

 extract or whatever it be, must be introduced into 

 the circulation. Alimentary anaphylaxis occurs 

 very rarely, since it is the digested products of 

 albuminoid substances, and not the substances them- 

 selves, that are absorbed into the blood. But the 

 rare exceptional cases are of extraordinary interest, 

 since thev are the people, known to us all, to whom 

 " eggs are poison," who cannot digest milk in any 

 form, or who cannot eat a particular kind of shellfish 

 without more or less severe symptoms, such as fever 

 and nettlerash. Here, too, the phenomenon is 

 absolutely specific, and Dr. Richet cites the case of 

 a man who always showed violent symptoms after 

 eating even a perfectly fresh shrimp, yet who could 

 indulge freely in lobster without inconvenience! 



There is also a "passive" anaphylaxis. If the 

 blood of an animal anaphylactiscd in regard to a 

 particular substance be injected into another animal, 

 that also is rendered anaphylactic to the same sub- 

 stance. Interesting, too, is the fact that anaphylaxis 

 in a mother, acquired either before or after concep- 

 tion, may be congenital in the offspring, but the 

 condition is not usually of long duration. In guinea 

 pigs it was noted on the forty-fourth da\-, but had 

 disappeared by the seventieth day. 



Professor Kichet's discussion, based on his own 

 experiments, of the precise way in which anaphylaxis 

 is brought about, is too technical to be of general 

 interest. Suffice it to say that he regards the first 

 introduction of the albuminoid as modifying the 

 blood by producing in it, during the incubation 

 period, a chemical substance, which is not in itself 

 toxic, but which is capable of becoming immediately 

 and violently so in the presence of the original 

 albuminoid. So numerous are the substances which 

 mav bring about modification, either in the direction 

 of anaphylactisation or immunisation, that each 

 individual of a species must differ from every other 

 in chemical constitution ; and the vague " idiosyn- 

 crasy " of the past must give place to a more definite 

 conception of a chemical personality which embodies 

 the results of the individual's physiological history, 

 just as his psychological personality registers his 

 mental experience. 



But notwithstanding the differences between the 

 individual members of a species, there is a typical 

 specific chemical constitution which cannot be widely 

 departed from if the species is to persist. And it is 

 in this fact that Professor Richet finds the key to 

 the apparent contradiction between anaphylaxis and 

 the general biological law, that every living organism 

 is in an optimum state of protection. " I am more 

 and more convinced," he writes, " that every detail 

 of the organism has a protective role, and is useful 

 and even necessary to life, and that, therefore, a 

 great general biological function like anaphylaxis 

 must plav an essential part in the defence of 

 organisms. So that anaphylaxis appears to us an 

 efficacious and energetic method of maintaining the 

 chemical stability of our bodies by provoking an 

 immediate and violent reactional response to the 

 introduction of any substance which might change 

 it. This is not the defence of the individual ; it is 

 the defence of the species at the cost of the 

 individual." 



ENGLISH LAKE 1 )\VI': LUNGS. 



In 1880 I wrote a short note on the Swiss chalets as being 

 the descendants of the old lake dwellings (Nature, October 

 7th). A subsequent writer drew attention to the fact that 

 someone else had previously suggested the same thing. 1 

 now wish to draw attention to the fact that we seem to have 

 had something of the same kind in England. In the " Life 

 and Letters of Professor A. Sedgwick IVol. I, p. 13-15) there 

 will be found illustrations of houses in his native village of 

 Dent which stands in a valley, presumably once a lake. The 

 dale of Dent is situated in the westernmost extremity of 

 Yorkshire, in which the River Dee now flows westerly into the 

 Lune. The entrance to the long valley at the west end is 

 represented on the map as five-eighths of a mile, or about 

 eleven hundred yards. 



The chief feature, both of the Swiss chalets and the houses 

 in Dent, is to have an outside staircase or steps to the rooms 

 above, which were surrounded by a " gallery," as Sedgwick 

 calls it ; but when he wrote they were fast disappearing. 

 The lower, or " ground floor," is mostly used now for fodder, 

 for the cow, in Switzerland ; but is built in, in the houses in 

 Dent. The left hand figure, however, on page 13, shows one 

 still open. The gallery is seen on the left hand side of 

 page 13. These two illustrations were made in 1820. 



It would thus seem that the old Dent houses really carried 

 on the tradition of a flat above the water, with the entrance 

 by means of a staircase outside, down to the water. 



A curious hint (as it may perhaps be called) is seen in the 

 Babylonian cosmogony discovered by Mr. G. Smith in 1S72, 

 which seems to have been — or some other more or less like 

 it — the source of Genesis i. One of the tablets says : — 



" (Anul made suitable the mansions of the (seveni Great 

 Gods. 



The stars he placed in them. 



The mansion of Hoi and Hea he established along with 

 himself. 



The bolts he strengthened on the left hand and on the right. 



In its centre also he made a staircase." 



The house is thus built over the " Water above the 

 firmament." Since the air or " firmament divided the waters 

 (clouds) from the waters (ocean)." (Genesis i, 6). 



The house, therefore, with its staircase, would seem to 

 have been built after the same fashion of an early lake 

 dwelling somewhere near the Persian Gulf. 



George Hexslow. 



