404 INFECTION AND RESISTANCE 



This substance is, according to him, pharmacologically identical 

 with his "keno toxin," or fatigue toxin, obtained in the washings 

 from the muscles of excessively fatigued animals. 



Accurate chemical definition of the anaphylactic poison has 

 not so far been accomplished, and it is obvious that the prob- 

 lem is an extremely difficult one. Biedl and Kraus, 61 62 however,, 

 have drawn a very close parallelism between anaphylactic intoxica- 

 tion and peptone poisoning in dogs. They have shown that peptone 

 (0.3 gr. to the kilo.) injected into these animals gives rise to- 

 the same clinical symptoms that characterize anaphylaxis. It is 

 accompanied also by typical fall of blood pressure, delayed coagula- 

 bility of the blood, and leukopenia. Furthermore, they claim that 

 the injection of sublethal doses of Witte peptone into serum-sen- 

 sitized dogs leads to a non-specific anti-anaphylaxis. They claim 

 a physiological identity of the Witte peptone with the anaphylactic 

 poison. 



This last observation could not be confirmed by Manwaring, 63 

 who found that dogs that had been rendered anti-anaphylactic to 

 horse serum still reacted strongly to peptone an observation which 

 does not indeed weaken the contention of Biedl and Kraus as to the 

 similarity of peptone shock to anaphylaxis, but has significance in 

 contradicting the doubts their experiments have thrown on the 

 specificity of anti-anaphylaxis. 



Observations similar to those of Biedl and Kraus on the toxic 

 action of peptone have been made by Arthus. 64 



Biedl and Kraus have found a similar parallelism in guinea pigs 

 in which they determined the typical bronchial spasms after peptone 

 administration. This is in contrast to Werbitzky, 65 who found even 

 large doses of peptone non-toxic for guinea pigs. Nevertheless, there 

 is no question that the similarity between peptone shock and anaphy- 

 laxis is very striking and of great theoretical importance. It does 

 not, however, bring us much nearer to a chemical understanding of 

 the nature of the poisons since the "Witte" peptone used in these ex- 

 periments is a mixture of many different substances. Brieger, 66 

 for instance, found toxic and non-toxic lots of Witte peptone. The 

 toxic ones yielded on extraction a body which he calls peptotoxin. 

 This variation in the constitution of different samples of so-called 

 "peptone" may account for some of the conflicting results obtained 

 in guinea pigs. 67 



61 Biedl and Kraus. Wien. klin. Woch., No. 11, 1909. 



62 Also "Kraus u. Levaditi Handbuch, etc.," Erganzungsband 1, p. 264. 



63 Manwaring. Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsforschung, Vol. 8, p. 589, 1911.. 



64 Arthus. C. R. de VAcad. des Sci., Vol. 148. 



65 Werbitzky. C. E. de la Soc. de Biol., Vol. 66, 1909. 



66 Brieger. "Die Ptomaine," 1, p. 14. 



67 For analysis of Witte peptone, see Hammarsten, "Physiological Chem- 

 istry," English translation. 



