VIII, B, 6 Gibson: Proteoses and Fever 479 



normal serum by the addition of agar, he concludes that "the 

 theory of the production of poison by digestion and disintegra- 

 tion of the antigen does not therefore appear to be justified." 

 Friedberger ^' claims that Bordet's results with agar are to be 

 ascribed to admixed proteins, although the formation of ana- 

 phylatoxin with kaolin suspensions seems to have been earlier 

 demonstrated. 



Loewit ^* believes that there is insufficient evidence to show 

 that "peptone" shock and anaphylactic shock are identical. 



Eine grosse Reihe von mehr oder weniger shockartigen Vergiftungs- 

 zustanden ist mit der akuten, aktiven anaphylaktischen Vergiftung nicht 

 identisch. Hierher gehort die Pepton-, die /3-Imidazolathylamin und die 

 Methylguanidinvergiftung. Hierher gehoren ferner die Vergiftungen mit 

 Essigsaure, Nucleinsaure, Kieselsaurehydrasol, Kupfersulfat, Sublimat, von 

 welchen die drei ersten sofortigen Herztod bewirken. 



Additional evidence that the symptoms of anaphylactic shock 

 are not due to proteoses is given by Auer and Van Slyke.'® 

 These investigators examined, with the recent refined analytical 

 methods, the amino-acid, peptone, and proteose content of the 

 lungs of guinea pigs which showed undoubted anaphylactic 

 shock. The analytical figures are essentially identical for the 

 "shock" and the control animals. 



A question of extreme importance to "peptone" intoxication 

 is whether the symptoms are actually due to the proteoses in- 

 jected or to the admixture of some substance physiologically 

 very active. Continuing the work of earlier investigators, Chit- 

 tenden and Mendel and their associates had established the fact 

 that the rapid introduction of proteoses directly into the cir- 

 culation would produce a marked fall in the blood pressure of 

 the dog; other changes were an increased lymph flow and 

 inhibition of the clotting powers of the blood, deep narcosis, 

 and anuria. Pick and Spiro ^" concluded that these effects may 

 be due to a contaminating substance, "peptozyme," of animal 

 origin and soluble in alcohol. Underbill " took up the subject 

 anew; employing native proteoses or those made from isolated 

 plant proteins with vegetable enzymes, heat, or acid hydration, 

 he obtained the "peptone" shock. Furthermore, he duplicated 

 Pick and Spiro's inactive preparations, except for a more ex- 

 tended hydrolysis, and still observed the characteristic effects. 



'^ Zeitschr. f. Immunitatsforsch., Orig. (1913), 17, 323. 



"Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm. (1913), 73, 1. 



'• .Journ. Exp. Med. (1913), 18, 210. 



" Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem. (Hoppe-Seyler) (1900), 31, 286. 



"Am. Jou7-n. Physiol. (1903), 9, 345. 



