ANAPHYLAXIS 399 



sessed by some of Behr ing's toxin-immunized animals. He assumed 

 that in such animals the formation of antitoxins may indeed have 

 been stimulated, but that much of it might still be attached to the 

 generating cells themselves, thereby rendering these proportionately 

 more vulnerable to the injected toxin. 



Such a conception of "sessile receptors" was applied by Fried- 

 berger to anaphylaxis in his first attempts to formulate an hy- 

 pothesis. He assumed that at the first or sensitizing injection the 

 production of antibodies (precipitins) was stimulated. These, how- 

 ever, were not produced in great quantity and were not discharged 

 into the circulation, possibly owing to the small single dose given 

 for sensitization. They were present at the end of the anaphylactic 

 incubation time as sessile receptors or sessile antibodies (precipitins). 

 On the second injection a reaction occurred between the injection 

 antigen and these sessile precipitins and the cell was injured because 

 the reaction occurred on its substance, a reaction which, it is sug- 

 gested, might have been harmless had it taken place in the blood 

 stream. In passive sensitization, conversely, no injury could result 

 until considerable quantities of the antibody had become united to 

 body cells in the course of several hours. That the antibody injected 

 into passively sensitized animals indeed disappears from the circula- 

 tion with relative speed, has been shown by Doerr and again recently 

 by Weil. 



Direct study of the cellular conception was made possible by 

 methods such as the transfusion method employed in anaphylactic 

 dogs by Pearce and Eisenbrey 45 and the technique of observing 

 isolated tissues from anaphylactic animals as used by Schultz 46 

 work which appeared as early as 1910. Pearce and Eisenbrey work- 

 ing with two normal and one sensitized dog, transfused the blood 

 of one of the normal animals into the sensitized one, transferring the 

 blood of the latter to the normal dog. "At the proper moment 

 the normal dog containing the blood of the sensitized animal and 

 the latter containing the blood of the normal dog, each received 

 intravenously the toxic dose of horse serum." The normal dog having 

 the sensitized blood did not react, the sensitized dog having the nor- 

 mal blood showed typical fall of blood pressure. Pearce and Eisen- 

 brey drew the conclusion "that the phenomenon of anaphylaxis is due 

 to a reaction in the fixed cells and not either primarily or secondarily 

 in the blood." Similar experiments have since been done by Weil. 



In the same year Schultz began to work with what is now spoken 

 of as the physiological method. He determined that smooth muscle 

 freshly excised from various animals will react with contraction 

 when brought into contact with serum. When such muscle was 

 taken from anaphylactic animals after being thoroughly washed free 



45 Pearce and Eisenbrey. Cong. Am. Phys. and Surg., 1910, viii. 



46 Schultz. Jour. Pharmacol. and Exper. Therap., 1910, i. 



