370 INFECTION AND RESISTANCE 



Schittenhelm 32 claims that anaphylaxis in dogs is invariably accom- 

 panied by a severe local reaction in the gut. The intestinal rnucosa 

 is swollen and contains miliary hemorrhages and the lumen is often 

 filled with a mucus mixed with blood. In the further analysis of the 

 anaphylactic reaction in dogs, Manwaring 33 has recently reported 

 observations of great interest. He investigated the participation in 

 anaphylactic shock of the various organs and determined that shock 

 did not occur when the abdominal vessels were ligated just above 

 the diaphragm. In further localizing the source of shock he found 

 that exclusion of the spleen, stomach, kidneys, suprarenals, and 

 ovaries from the circulation had no effect upon the occurrence of 

 anaphylactic shock. However, when he operated in such a way that 

 the liver was thrown out of circulation, none of the seven dogs that 

 he used reacted with anaphylactic shock to the injection of serum. 

 He concludes from this that the liver is directly responsible in some 

 way for the production of anaphylaxis. The intestines, too, were 

 found, by a similar procedure, to take part, though to a less important 

 extent than the liver. 



I Other animals than those mentioned have been little used for 

 ^anaphylactic experiment. Observations incidental to other work, 

 however, have shown that horses and goats are particularly sensitive. 

 In goats the writer has observed both serum and bacterial anaphy- 

 laxis, and the symptoms here were those of general trembling, weak- 

 ness, labored respiration, and involuntary evacuation of urine. 



The occurrence of anaphylaxis in man will be discussed in a 

 subsequent section. 



Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless a fact which we must 

 emphasize that the occurrence of anaphylactic shock is not physi- 

 ologically identical in different species of animals. The phenomenon 

 in guinea pigs is unlike that in rabbits. The isolated rabbit uterus 

 will not react when the guinea pig uterus does. The rabbit heart 

 seems to react when the guinea pig heart does not, and the character- 

 istic pulmonary picture of the guinea pig is entirely lacking in the 

 rabbit. In dogs, again, the liver seems to be the organ most definitely 

 involved, and intestinal symptoms are particularly severe. It is en- 

 tirely unsafe, therefore, to draw conclusions by analogy from one ani- 

 mal to another, and naturally, also, it is unwarranted to apply directly 

 to man conditions revealed by animal experimentation. 



The manifestations of "active anaphylaxis " therefore, consist in 

 the profound physiological changes occurring in animals when rein- 

 jected after a definite interval with certain substances which, on first 

 injection, were practically harmless. The factors which are of funda- 

 mental importance in determining the development of this hypersus- 

 ceptible or anaphylactic state consist in the nature of the injected sub- 



32 Weiehhardt and Schittenhelm. Deutsche med. Woch., 19, 1911. 



33 Manwaring. Zeitschrift, f. Immun., Vol. 18, 1911. 



