380 INFECTION AND RESISTANCE 



That such a passive transference of anaphylaxis is possible was 

 shown by a number of investigators almost simultaneously and M. 

 Nicolle, 69 in February, 1907, published a study on the phenome- 

 non of Arthus in which he showed that, if the serum of a hyper- 

 susceptible rabbit (sensitized with horse serum) was injected into a 

 normal rabbit, the recipient was rendered sensitive, so that the sub- 

 cutaneous injection of horse serum, made 24 hours later, produced 

 typical infiltrations. Richet 70 soon after this succeeded in trans- 

 ferring hypersusceptibility toward mytilocongestin (a mussel poi- 

 son) from a sensitized to a normal dog by injecting considerable 

 amounts of the blood from the former into the latter. In this case, 

 too, the hypersusceptibility of the second dog did not appear until 

 one or two days after injection of the blood. At almost the same 

 time Otto 71 and Friedemann 72 independently succeeded in trans- 

 ferring serum anaphylaxis from hypersusceptible to normal guinea 

 pigs in a similar way. Experiments of Gay and Southard, 73 pub- 

 lished during the same year, may possibly be also interpreted as in- 

 stances of passive anaphylaxis, although their experimental pro- 

 cedure renders this doubtful, even in their own opinions. They 

 injected 0.1 c. c. of serum from both sensitive and refractory guinea 

 pigs into normal animals and followed this, after 10 days, with in- 

 jections of antigen. The fact that such animals reacted may be 

 interpreted in a number of ways. They themselves regarded the 

 hypersusceptibility which the injected animals developed as a 

 "purely active one," and it is more than likely that this was the 

 case, the recipient animals being actively sensitized by traces of 

 antigen remaining unassimilated in the blood of the actively sensi- 

 tized donors. In the following year (1908) the facts of passive 

 sensitization were rapidly confirmed and extended by Besredka, 74 

 Lewis, 75 and others, 76 and information of the greatest value for the 

 comprehension of the anaphylactic reaction was obtained. 



Otto showed that passive sensitization could be carried out with 

 the serum of an actively sensitized animal 8 days after the antigen 

 injection, at a period when this animal itself had not yet become 

 hypersusceptible. He also showed that the passive transfer of ana- 

 phylaxis need not be confined to animals of the same species, but that 

 guinea pigs could be rendered passively anaphylactic with the blood 

 serum of sensitized rabbits. From the work of Gay and Southard, 77 



69 M. Nicolle. Ann. de Vlnst. Past., Vol. 21, 1907. 



70 Richet. Ann. de I'Inst. Past., Vol. 21, 1907. 



71 Otto. Hunch, med. Woch., No. 34, 1907. 



72 Friedemann. Munch, med. Woch., No. 49, 1907. 



73 Gay and Southard. Jour. Med. Res., Vol. 16, 1907. 

 7 *Besredka. Ann. de I'Inst. Past., Vol. 22, 1908. 



76 Lewis. Jour. Exp. Med., Vol. 10, 1908. 



76 Kraus and Doerr. Wien. klin. Woch., No. 28, 1908. 



77 Gay and Southard. Jour. Med. Res., Vol. 18, 1908. 



