530 INFECTION AND RESISTANCE 



and in other respects injurious. The marked increase of the enzymes 

 may aid in rapidly disposing of the unchanged foreign substance, 

 and perhaps the beneficial effects following the injection of typhoid 

 vaccines into patients suffering from this disease may be due to the 

 mobilization of ferments as suggested by Jobling and Petersen. 16 



On the other hand, the proteolytic activity may result in protein 

 cleavage, by means of which albumoses, etc., are liberated in greater 

 or smaller quantities which act injuriously and lead to clinical 

 symptoms of various kinds. That fever may perhaps be explained 

 by poisoning with albumoses so produced has already been suggested 

 by Jochmann, and that albumoses are present in various products 

 of suppurative inflammation has also been shown. It has been shown' 

 by Pfeiffer and Jarisch, 17 and others, that fluctuations in proteolytic 

 enzymes accompany anaphylaxis. Jobling and Petersen 18 have 

 formulated a theory of anaphylaxis based upon studies of serum 

 protease. They observed that during the course of sensitization 

 there occurred a gradual mobilization of non-specific protease which 

 increased in intensity up to the time of maximum sensitization. 

 They attributed acute shock to the fact that on the second injection 

 there occurs an instantaneous mobilization of large amounts of non- 

 specific protease together with a decrease in antiferment and an 

 increase in non-coagulable nitrogen and amino-acids, and they be- 

 lieve that the cause of the acute intoxication is the rapid cleavage of 

 the serum protease. The specific element they believe consists in the 

 rapid mobilization of the ferments and the colloidal serum changes 

 which bring about the change in antiferment titre. Fascinating as 

 this theory is, and although it has a number of things in common with 

 our own ideas concerning the colloidal balance in the plasma which 

 ordinarily prevents the rapid union of antigen with antibody, we 

 feel that recent knowledge concerning the essentially intracellular 

 nature of anaphylaxis in the guinea pig prevents its adoption. 

 Furthermore, we believe that the specific element of anaphylaxis is 

 insufficiently explained by Jobling and Petersen' s conclusions. 



Again the question arises: Are these serum proteases in any 

 way to be identified with bacteriolytic antibodies or with alexin or 

 complement ? It is more than likely that no such relationship exists. 

 In the first place, the seroproteases are non-specific, and it has been 

 shown that in the course of bacteriolysis no increase in non-coagulable 

 nitrogen occurs. Moreover, Jobling and Petersen, 19 to whom we 

 owe much of our recent knowledge on this subject, have shown that 

 the treatment of bacteria with complement alone or with complement 

 together with human serum renders them more resistant to proteoly- 



16 Jobling and Petersen. Journal of the A. M. A., 1915, Vol. 65, p. 515. 



17 Pfeiffer and Jarisch. Zeitschr. f. Imm., Vol. 16, 1912. 



18 Jobling and Petersen. Journ. of Exp. Med., 1914, Vol. 20. 



19 Jobling and Petersen. Journ. of Exp. Med., Vol. 20, 1914, p. 321. 



