136 ANAPHYLAXIS, ALLERGY OR HYPERSENSITIVENESS 



Schultz 1 and others indicate that the reaction occurs within the cells 

 of the body rather than in the blood stream. The urine of anaphy- 

 lactic animals is toxic and 2 c.c. is frequently sufficient to kill guinea 

 pigs with anaphylactic symptoms, according to Pfeiffer. 2 



Anaphylaxis may be defined as a congenital or acquired condition 

 of hypersensitiveness of man or animals to the parenteral introduction 

 of proteins, which is incited by one or more injections of bacterial, 

 plant, animal or human protein. Active acquired hypersensitiveness 

 can be transmitted to non-sensitized individuals by the injection of 

 the serum of an anaphylacticized individual, inducing in the recipient 

 of the serum a condition of passive anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis, there- 

 fore, belongs to the group of immunological reactions. 



Theories. Vaughan 3 has shown that all proteins may be split into 

 two fractions if they are heated with alcoholic potassium hydroxide; 

 one portion, insoluble in alcohol, when injected into animals gives 

 symptoms indistinguishable from those of anaphylaxis, irrespective 

 of the protein. The alcohol-soluble fraction is not toxic. The alcohol- 

 insoluble fraction obtained from various animal, vegetable, and 

 bacterial proteins, always reacts the same, not only symptomatically, 

 but quantitatively, as well. His theory is that the protein molecule 

 consists of two parts: an archon or nucleus, which is poisonous and 

 elicits the symptoms of anaphylaxis when it is injected parenterally 

 into animals, and common to all proteins; and additional groups 

 which are non-poisonous, but confer upon a protein by their number 

 and arrangement, its specificity. When a protein is injected paren- 

 terally into an animal, the cells of the animal elaborate an enzyme 

 which will specifically disintegrate it. Among the products of disin- 

 tegration is the poisonous nucleus or archon in a more or less free 

 state. The liberation of this substance causes acute poisoning of the 

 host. This substance, for which no antibody or antitoxin has been 

 prepared so far, is the "endotoxin" of bacteria. 



Many of the phenomena of anaphylaxis are readily explained in 

 the light of Vaughan's work. The latent period or pre-anaphylactic 

 state which intervenes between the injection of a protein and the 

 appearance of sensitization is the time required to mature the specific 

 enzyme. The specificity of the enzyme (called forth by the stimulus 

 of alien protein in the tissues) is determined by the arrangement and 



1 Loc. cit. 



2 Zeit. f. Immunitatsforsch., 1911, x, 550. 



3 Protein Split Products, 1913, for full discussion. 



