256 PHARMACEUTICAL BACTERIOLOGY 



with body cells, without exposure to enteral enzymatic action, is quanti- 

 tatively as well as qualitatively different from the anaphylactic conditions 

 following the administration of the reacting substances per os. The 

 fluids and enzymes of the digestive tract modify profoundly the anaphy- 

 lactic reaction. It is true, similar enzymes exist within the general body . 

 cells, but here they are not associated with activating elemeiits. The 

 enteral solutions and enzymes break down (catalyze) many, in fact most, 

 of the organic compounds, rendering them anaphylactically harmless. 



Some very interesting observations have been made in regard to 

 anaphylactic skin reactions with food substances. If a trace of a given 

 food substance or an aqueous extract thereof is briskly rubbed into a 

 small skin abrasion, hypersusceptibility or anaphylaxis toward the food 

 will be indicated by circumscribed redness which develops quickly and 

 disappears in a short time. The redness (inflammatory process) is 

 simply a local anaphylactic reaction. Such tests have been made with a 

 great variety of raw, partially cooked and completely cooked foods. The 

 skin reaction is simply a localized anaphylactic shock. If the same subr 

 stance were injected into the general circulation, a general bodily reaction 

 might follow. 



Skin reaction tests along the lines above outlined could no doubt be 

 made of great practical value to the diagnostician, the clinician, in forensic 

 medicine, in criminal investigation, in the study of dietetics, in food in- 

 vestigation, etc. It would be possible to determine hypersusceptibility, 

 not only to foods, but to a variety of other substances. The physician 

 makes use of a number of recognized skin reactions, as in typhoid fever, 

 in diphtheria, in tuberculosis, in glanders, in s3T3hflis, in gonorrhea, in 

 hay fever. Not only may the existence of the disease be ascertained by 

 such tests, but the degree of susceptibUity to such diseases may be as- 

 certained. This latter information would prove of great value as in- 

 dicating the diseases against which any existing hypersusceptibility 

 should be overcome by appropriate means, as perhaps avoiding as much 

 as possible the chances of exposure to such diseases. Tests determining 

 the susceptibility to drug action would be a means of selecting proper 

 dosage. In fact, experiments with non-toxic plant extracts administered 

 parenterally is opening up a new system of therapeutic activity. The 

 essentials in this newer therapy are based upon the assumption that certain 

 wholly non-toxic plant substances which are enzymatic in nature, as 

 chlorophyll, lipoids and vitamines, act biologically in splitting up foreign 

 proteins, as bacteria, pathological deposits and formations as in cancer, 

 in goiter, in syphiHs, in gout, in rheumatism, etc. It is claimed that 

 excellent results have already been obtained from the intravenous and 

 intramuscular administration of plant extracts and metallic colloids 



