ANAPHYLAXIS 379 



we shall see, there are other methods by which it is claimed that a 

 nonspecific antianaphylaxis can be produced. One of these consists 

 in the injection of anaphy lactic animals with peptone. The problem 

 of peptone poisoning and its relation to anaphylaxis will receive sep- 

 arate consideration. 



Banzhaf and Steinhardt 65 have reported that 0.5 gram of lecithin 

 given to sensitized guinea pigs protects them against second injec- 

 tion. Rosenau and Anderson 66 have failed to confirm this. 



The above methods of rendering animals antianaphylactic, apart 

 from the bearing they may have on purely therapeutic possibilities, 

 serve to throw much light upon the mechanism of the reac- 

 tion within the animal body. It is of great interest for the under- 

 standing of the physiological conditions underlying anaphylaxis also 

 to consider briefly the influence upon anaphylactic shock which may 

 be exerted by certain drugs. The preventive influence of atropin 

 we have already mentioned in connection with the work of Auer and 

 Lewis. Besredka, who, as we shall see, attributes the major part of 

 anaphylactic manifestations to reactions proceeding from the central 

 nervous symptom, claims to have succeeded in injecting ordinarily 

 fatal doses of antigen without harm into guinea pigs previously 

 anesthetized with ether.- Banzhaf and Famulener 67 have similarly 

 prevented shock by large doses of chloral hydrate. Rosenau and 

 Anderson 68 could not prevent death with ether, and in similar in- 

 vestigations with urethane, paraldehyd, chloral hydrate, and mag- 

 nesium sulphate, concluded that none of these drugs has any notice- 

 able effect upon anaphylactic shock in guinea pigs. 



Up to the present time we have confined ourselves to the descrip- 

 tion of the basic anaphylactic experiment, which is spoken of as 

 "active sensitization" in analogy to the expression "active immuniza- 

 tion," since, like the latter, it conveys the conception that the state 

 of hypersusceptibility (like the immunity in active immunization) is 

 here acquired by reason of physiological changes directly induced in 

 the treated animal in reaction to the first injection of the foreign 

 antigen. There is another method of inducing hypersusceptibility 

 which, in continuance of the analogy to immunization, is spoken of 

 as "passive anaphylaxis, " since it consists in transferring the hyper- 

 susceptible condition to a perfectly normal animal by injecting into 

 it serum from an actively sensitized one. The normal animal is thus 

 merely the passive recipient of the reaction bodies produced in the 

 sensitive animal by preliminary treatment. 



65 Banzhaf and Steinhardt. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. and Med., Vol. 7, 

 1910. 



66 Rosenau and Anderson. Hyg. Lab. Bull 64, 1910. 



67 Banzhaf and Famulener. Studies N. T. Dep. Health Ees. Lab., 1908, 

 p. 107. 



68 Rosenau and Anderson. Jour. Med. Res., Vol. 21, N. S., 16, 1909. 



