86 



Scientific Proceedings (57). 



49 (866) 



The cellular interpretation of anaphylaxis and immunity. 

 By Richard Weil. 



[From the Cornell University Medical College, N. Y. City.] 



It has been shown in previous communications that the sero- 

 logical evidence is not in harmony with the current view that 

 anaphylaxis is due to a reaction between the antibody present in 

 the blood and the introduced antigen. This contention has now 

 been confirmed with the help of the graphic method introduced by 

 Dale, by means of the following experiment. A guinea-pig which 

 is passively sensitized by the injection of 0.3 cubic centimeters of 

 the serum of a rabbit immunized against horse serum, may be 

 killed on the following day by an intravenous injection of horse 

 serum. The uterine preparation also, on the second day, responds 

 typically to the administration of horse serum. If, however, the 

 antigen is applied immediately after sensitization, no reaction 

 occurs, either in vivo or in vitro. The same failure to react follows 

 the injection of relatively enormous amounts of the immune rab- 

 bit's serum, as for example three cubic centimeters. Hence, it is 

 apparent that the presence of immune bodies in the circulating 

 blood does not suffice to make a guinea-pig hypersensitive, but 

 that these antibodies must first be bound by the body cells. 



In the present paper I shall, furthermore, make a preliminary 

 report upon a new method of studying the mechanism of ana- 

 phylaxis and immunity. Hitherto it has been customary to 

 study these phenomena by means of the reaction to antigen, induced 

 through the presence of antibody in the organism. The object 

 sought by the method herein described is to permit of the identi- 

 fication of the antigen, as well as of the antibody, in the sensitized 

 or immunized animal. 



The essential feature of this method consists in the use of an 

 immune serum as antigen. To illustrate: if a guinea-pig be sensi- 

 tized by means of large doses of the serum of a rabbit immunized 

 against horse serum, it has been shown that the passive sensitiza- 

 tion to horse serum persists over a period of two weeks. During 



