BACTERIAL ANAPHYLAXIS 417 



Indeed, Neufeld and Dold, 22 in experiments with the cholera 

 spirillum, found that whenever lysis was permitted to proceed as far 

 as the actual disintegration and granulation of the bacteria no pois- 

 onous substances were obtained. They conclude from this that rapid 

 lysis actually prevents the production of the poison, and that the 

 anaphylactic antibody has no relation to the bacteriolytic sensitizer. 

 They fortify this opinion by experiments in which they easily ob- 

 tained powerful poisons with pneumococci, organisms which are but 

 slightly, if at all, subject to actual lysis. They suggest identity of 

 the anaphylactic antibody with the opsonins, or possibly with the 

 "Bordetsche Antikorper" of Neufeld. This latter conclusion 

 does not seem valid, since the mere fact that one micro-organism 

 undergoes lysis and another does not is not necessarily an argument 

 for a difference in the sensitizers produced in animals by immuniza- 

 tion with these bacteria. It may, and probably does, depend upon 

 variations in the ease of disintegration of the different cell-bodies, 

 and, as a matter of fact, not many bacteria undergo actual complete 

 lysis as easily as does the cholera spirillum. Moreover, there is 

 much evidence in favor of the so-called "unitarian" point of view, 

 which holds that no fundamental structural and functional differ- 

 ences between the various heat-stable antibodies sensitizers (ambo- 

 ceptors), precipitins, immune opsonins (bacteriotropins), and the 

 so-called "Bordet" alexin-fixing antibodies have as yet been 

 proved. 



However this may be, it seems conclusively established that a too 

 vigorous and prolonged action of the antibody-alexin complex upon 

 the bacterial protein does not yield poisons and that, since less 

 vigorous sensitization or early interruption of the exposure will lead 

 to positive results, the mechanism is one of rapid poison formation 

 with equally rapid further decomposition into a non-toxic substance. 

 In some cases this is more rapid than in others. In Neufeld and 

 Dold's experiments with cholera spirilla the exposure of 2 loopsful 

 of the organisms sensitized with 0.02 antiserum and treated with 2 

 c. c. of alexin resulted in complete lysis and failure of demonstrable 

 anaphylatoxin in 2 hours at 37 C. In some of the writer's experi- 

 ments with typhoid bacilli the most regular positive results were ob- 

 tained when the exposures at 37 C. were prolonged to several hours 

 and powerful poisons were determined even after as long as 15 hours 

 at 37 C. An example of such an experiment is given below, since 

 we believe that in the apparent stability of the typhoid anaphyla- 

 toxins and the wide range of quantitative relations within which the 

 poison was successfully obtained, it forms a strong argument in favor 

 of Friedberger's theory of the role played by these poisons in diseases 

 like typhoid fever. 



22 Neuf eld and Bold. Loc. cit. 



