42 



Scientific Proceedings (70). 



no antigen. If precipitates produced by the combination of 

 horse serum, or egg albumen, and their respective antiserums, be 

 treated with salt solution, or with 1 per cent, sodium carbonate, 

 the resulting extract always contains antigen. It also contains 

 passively sensitizing antibody, but no precipitin. 



If such a precipitate be treated with trypsin, or with rabbit's 

 leucocytes, both antigen and precipitin are present in the extract. 

 Sensitizing antibody is also demonstrable. 



28 (1092) 



Studies on so-called protective ferments — IX. Antitryptic index 

 in its relation to the clinical manifestations of anaphylaxis. 



By J. Bronfenbrenner. 



[From the Pathological and Research Laboratories of the Western 

 Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.] 



The convulsions in eclampsia and epilepsy, as well as the 

 respiratory failure in asthma have been repeatedly considered as an 

 expression of anaphylactic reaction, though no definite proofs 

 were offered for such a view. The theory of specific parenteral 

 digestion of Vaughan, as applied by Abderhalden and his pupils 

 to diagnosis of different pathological conditions, brought forward 

 new possibilities of investigation in this direction. 



According to results obtained by means of Abderhalden re- 

 action many authors concluded that the patients, suffering from 

 the conditions mentioned above, show active specific parenteral 

 digestion of different tissues, as evidenced by the presence of 

 specific proteolytic ferments in their blood. 



As I have shown it elsewhere, 1 this conception of the mechan- 

 ism of parenteral digestion is not correct. The results obtained 

 by means of the Abderhalden reaction are nevertheless of value 

 as they show t at certain specific changes have taken place in the 

 blood 2 of the patients, by means of which the specific parenteral 



1 Bronfenbrenner, these Proceedings, 1914, XII. p. 3. and 1915. XII, p. 137; 

 also Journ. Exp. Med., 1915, XXI, p. 221. 



2 According to investigations conducted in this laboratory and confirmed else- 

 where, the changes consist in the appearance in the blood of specific antibodies 

 (in this case autolytic in nature) and not specific ferments. 



