PROTEOSES AND FEVER 



By R. B. Gibson 



{From the Laboratory of Physiology, College of Medicine and Surgery, 



University of the Philippines, and the Sheffield Laboratory of 



Physiological Chemistry, Yale University) 



Bordet ^ says : 



Von Pirquet and especially Friedberger, have developed the theory that 

 the phenomena of anaphylaxis play an essential part in the production of 

 the symptoms observed in the course of contagious diseases. According to 

 these scientists, the symptoms declare themselves when the antibodies, ela- 

 borated by the organism, begin to react with the microbes. This theory 

 was based especially on the fact * * * that the simple contact of mi- 

 crobes with fresh serum may produce anaphylatoxin; this contact naturally 

 takes place constantly in the infected organism. 



Evidence of the relation of fever in infections to anaphylaxis 

 is given in the work of Friedberger and Mita.^ The injection 

 of appropriate minute amounts of foreign protein into guinea 

 pigs, sensitized to that protein, produces a marked transient 

 rise in body temperature following the characteristic fall. The 

 same results are observable with anaphylatoxin prepared in 

 vitro and, also, with normal guinea pigs (although relatively 

 greatly increased amounts of the protein must be employed in 

 the latter case).^ Successive injections yield temperature curves 

 corresponding in type to those of infectious fevers. 



In anaphylactic shock, the symptoms resemble the picture 

 obtained for the intoxication resulting from the intravenous 

 injection of proteoses (page 479). This similarity has been 

 repeatedly pointed out.^ 



An aphy lactic-like shock in the normal organism is claimed 



Woum. State Med. (1913), 21, 459. 



^ Zeitschr. f. Immunitdtsforsch., Orig. (1911), 10, 216. 



• Friedberger and Mita believe that anaphylaxis is an intensification of 

 the ordinary reaction of the normal organism to foreign proteins. The 

 shock following the injection of toxic normal sera has been similarly inter- 

 preted [Doerr and Moldovan, Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., Orig. (1910), 

 7, 223]. 



'Cf. E. Zunz, ibid. (1913), 16, 581. 



475 



