BACTERIAL ANAPHYLAXIS 419 



As regards the second and third point the failure of producing 

 anaphylatoidns if, on the one hand, too intense sensitization was 

 employed or, on the other, the time of exposure was too prolonged 

 these seem to indicate that anaphylatoxin is not the end product of 

 the complement action, but rather an unstable intermediate sub- 

 stance which, once formed, is rapidly further decomposed ("abge- 

 baut") into non-toxic derivatives. 



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 microorganism under- 

 goes lysis and another does not is not necessarily an argument for a 

 difference in the sensitizers produced in animals by immunization 

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

 tions 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 differences 

 between the various heat-stable antibodies sensitizers (ambocep- 

 tors), 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 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 forma- 

 tion with equally rapid further decomposition into a non-toxic sub- 

 stance. In some cases chis is _nore rapid than in others. In Neufeld 

 and Dold's experiments with cholera spirilla the exposure of 2 loops- 

 ful 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. 



That the production of the poison can under no circumstances be 



22 Neufeld and Dold. Loc. cit. 



