n6 



Scientific Proceedings (52). 



amount, and then two additional stitches are taken to maintain 

 this degree of constriction. 1 



Abstracts of the Communications, Pacific Coast Branch. 

 Second meeting. 

 San Francisco, California, February 1, IQ13. 

 76 (772) 



Studies on the nature of biological specificity. 



By Frederick P. Gay and T. Brailsford Robertson. 



[From the Hearst Laboratory of Pathology and Bacteriology and the 

 Rudolph Spreckels Physiological Laboratory of the University 

 of California.] 



Our previous immunological studies 2 with the split products 

 of casein and a compound of casein with protamin, which were 

 undertaken for the purpose of gaining some insight as to the nature 

 of biological specificity have apparently been fruitless in so far 

 as the main point at issue was concerned, with one exception. 

 In our comparative studies of the antigenic properties of split 

 paranuclein with paranuclein synthesized by the reversible action 

 of pepsin from the products of peptic digestion, we were apparently 

 able to demonstrate the genesis of an antigenic property. 



The present study deals with the investigation of the antigenic 



1 About 3 weeks ago I received from Dr. Francesco Nassetti a reprint of a 

 paper by him entitled "Avvolgimento di vasi Sanguigni con lembi liberi di aponeurosi," 

 and published April 26, 1912, in the Atli delta R. Accidentia dei Fisiocritici in Siena. 

 Dr. Nassetti's experiments were made in the Istituto di Patalogia Speciale Chir- 

 urgica della R. Universita. di Siena, which is under the direction of Prof. A. Salomoni. 

 His first experiment (a band of fascia about the carotid artery) antedates mine by 

 56 days, and his article appeared about three months before the publication by me 

 of a brief account of my first experiments with spiral strips of aorta {Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital Bulletin, July, 1912, p. 217). My first experiment (Apr. 29, 1912) was 

 made 3 days after the publication of Nassetti's report. Hence the credit for the 

 idea of wrapping blood vessels with bands of fresh tissue belongs, I am happy to 

 say, to Italy, the country of the famous surgeon, Luigi Porta, who was, I think, the 

 first to attempt the partial occlusion of an artery (the aorta). I have the impression 

 that Porta used for this purpose a strip of diachylon plaster. 



2 Gay, F. P., and Robertson, T. B., Jour. Exper. Med., 1912, XVI, 470; Jour. 

 Biol. Chem., 1912, XII, 233; Jour. Exper. Med., 1912, XVI, 479. 



