CHAPTER XI 

 ANAPHYLAXIS IN ITS RELATION TO DISEASE 



THE discovery that the parenteral introduction of foreign albumins 

 into the animal body leads to an anaphylactic state, in consequence 

 of which the reintroduction of the corresponding substances is fol- 

 lowed by changes which are of more or less serious effect upon the 

 body at large, has, of course, raised the question, whether certain 

 symptoms which we observe in the course of the various infectious 

 diseases may not be anaphylactic in origin and whether certain non- 

 infectious diseases may not be referable to such factors altogether. 



A study of the various diseases from this standpoint has elicited 

 a number of interesting data, though we must admit that our 

 knowledge of these questions has not extended very far beyond 

 the domain of possibilities. 



The earliest investigations in this direction we owe to v. Pirquet 

 and Schick, and from these we are unquestionably justified in 

 inferring that the second possibility above mentioned actually exists, 

 viz., that diseases occur which may be wholly due to the existence 

 of an anaphylactic state in reference to certain proteins. The 

 most notable example of this order is the serum sickness which is 

 observed in certain individuals, following the injection of the various 

 antitoxic and bacteriolytic sera, and which, as we have already 

 pointed out, is not referable to the contained antibodies, but to 

 the albumins of the alien sera in themselves. The picture which 

 here develops is in many respects very similar to what we see in 

 certain infectious diseases, although the material which is intro- 

 duced is, of course, sterile. Here, as there, the clinical symptoms 

 do not appear at once, but only after a certain interval, which is 

 quite analogous to the so-called period of incubation of the infectious 

 diseases. 



This observation is very important, as it has thrown a new light 

 upon the occurrences in the body during that period and upon the 

 manner in which some of the clinical symptoms of the infectious 



