THE NATURE OF THE POISON, ANAPHYLATOXIN 135 



THE NATURE OF THE POISON, ANAPHYLATOXIN. 



The anaphylactic reaction, like other serological reactions, appears 

 to depend upon the elaboration of a specific antibody in the sen- 

 sitized animal. The specificity of the reaction is very striking in the 

 physiological sense the serum of one animal fails to sensitize for the 

 serum of an unrelated animal. Egg protein of one species also fails 

 to sensitize an animal against the egg protein of another species. 

 Osborne and Wells, 1 using vegetable proteins which can be obtained 

 in a state of relative purity, have shown that sensitization, in the 

 last analysis, depends chiefly upon the chemical composition of the 

 sensitizer. Thus, one vegetable protein fails to sensitize against a 

 second, unlike protein, even though they be derived from the same 

 seed. 



The specificity of the reaction is striking it takes place only in 

 response to a second injection of the homologous protein, but the 

 symptomatology is essentially the same, irrespective of the sensitizer. 

 The promptness with which the reaction appears after the reinjection 

 suggests at once that the poison is radically different from a true 

 bacterial toxin, which invariably requires a definite latent period 

 before symptoms can be detected. In this respect the anaphylatoxin 

 resembles somewhat an alkaloidal poison. Up to the present time no 

 antitoxins have been prepared. The action of the poison is peripheral 

 rather than central, according to Auer and Lewis. 2 Schultz 3 and 

 others have shown that it acts powerfully upon smooth muscle fibers; 

 Biedl and Kraus 4 and others have shown that an injection of peptone 

 into dogs elicits symptoms and pathological changes indistinguishable 

 from those of anaphylaxis. They were inclined to regard the anaphy- 

 latoxin as similar to, or possibly identical with peptone. Animals 

 immune' to anaphylactic reactions react slightly or not at all to peptone 

 injections. 



Passive anaphylaxis may be induced in a non-sensitized animal 

 by an injection of the serum of a sensitized animal. Usually a few 

 hours elapse before the recipient of the specific antibody is reactive, 

 however. The experiments of Pearce and Eisenbrey, 5 of Weil, 6 Dale, 7 



Jour. Inf. Dis., 1913, xii, 341. 



Loc. cit. 



Hygienic Laboratory Bulletin, 1912, No. 80. 



Wien. klin. Wchnschr., 1901, No. 11. 



Journ. Inf. Dis., 1910, vii, 565. 



Jour. Med. Res., 1913, xxvii, 497; 1914, xxx, 87, 299. 



Jour. Pharm. and Exp. Therap., 1913, iv, 167. 



