62 



Scientific Proceedings (27). 



35 (291) 

 A note on anaphylaxis. 



By EDWIN J. BANZHAF and L. W. FAMULENER. 



[From the Research Laboratory of the Department of Health, New 



York Citj'.'j 



Rosenau and Anderson in their first communication on hyper- 

 susceptibility reported their attempts to destroy or remove the 

 toxic substances from horse serum. They treated the serum, 

 which was used for the second injection, by various physical and 

 chemical means, such as, heating the serum to 6o° C, filtering 

 through porcelain, drying, freezing, precipitation and dialysis, and 

 by direct addition to the serum for various lengths of time of 

 such chemicals as potassium permanganate, hydrogen peroxide, 

 succinic acid and butyric acid, also various antiseptics, all with- 

 out success. Continuing their investigations they reported, in 

 their second communication, the influence of ferments, alkaloids, 

 salts and such substances as ox bile, animal charcoal and yeast 

 cells. These gave negative results. 



One of us took up the problem from another standpoint, i. e., 

 to treat the sensitized animal with drugs just prior to the second 

 injection. In the preliminary experiments morphin sulphate was 

 used with negative results. Following this, chloral hydrate was 

 employed to produce hypnosis and it was found that sensitized 

 guinea-pigs could be protected with this drug. After our experi- 

 ments with chloral hydrate were well advanced, Besredka's com- 

 munication came to our attention, in which he claimed that ether 

 and also calcium chloride exerted a protective action when admin- 

 istered to sensitized guinea-pigs before the second injection of the 

 serum. 



We found by injecting a solution of chloral hydrate which was 

 just sufficient to produce hypnosis, that fully 75 per cent, of all 

 serum sensitized guinea-pigs were completely protected from the 

 second injection of serum into the peritoneal cavity, while go per 

 cent, of all the controls died. We believe that with improved 

 technique on the dosage of chloral hydrate, we will be able to 



