IMMUNE SERA 



the peritoneal cavity of a susceptible guinea pig is 

 sufficient to cause death. The same quantity inocu- 

 lated substaneously may cause serious symptoms. 

 Guinea pigs may be sensitized to the toxic action of 

 horse serum by feeding them with horse serum or 

 horse meat. 



It may be that man cannot be sensitized in the 

 same way that guinea pigs can. However, children 

 have, in numerous instances, been injected with an- 

 tidiphtheric horse serum at short and long inter- 

 vals without, so far as we are aware, causing death. 

 Certain serums, for example, the anti tubercle serum 

 of Maragliano and the antirheumatic serum of Me- 

 zer, are habitually used by giving injections at inter- 

 vals of days or weeks. The results of Rosenau and 

 Anderson make it probable that man may be ren- 

 dered sensitive to the injection of a strange proteid, 

 as is the case with the guinea pig and other animals, 

 and that this explanation must be considered as 

 well as the status lymphaticus, which has heretofore 

 been assigned as the cause of sudden death following 

 the injection of horse serum. 



Anaphylaxis. After the manuscript of the pres- 

 ent volume had been sent to the printer, a splendid 

 article on the subject of sudden death in " sensitized 

 guinea pigs " made its appearance. The authors, 

 Gay and Southard, 1 have adopted the term "ana- 



1 Gay and Southard, Journ. Medical Research, No. 98, May, 

 1907. 



